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Learning from Artemisinin: Bioinspired Design of a Reaction-Based Fluorescent Probe for the Selective Sensing of
Shuai Xu1, Hong-Wen Liu1, Lanlan Chen2
1Molecular Science and Biomedicine Laboratory, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, Collaborative Innovation Center for Chemistry and Molecular Medicine , Hunan University , Changsha 410082 , P. R. China.
Abstract:
Labile heme (LH) is an important signaling molecule in virtually all organisms. However, specifically detecting LH remains an outstanding challenge. Herein, by learning from the bioactivation mechanism of artemisinin, we have developed the first LH-responsive small-molecule fluorescent probe, HNG, based on a 4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide (NG) fluorophore. HNG showed high selectivity for LH without interference from hemin, protein-interacting heme, and zinc protoporphyrin. Using HNG, the changes of LH levels in live cells were imaged, and a positive correlation of LH level with the degree of hemolysis was uncovered in hemolytic mice. Our study not only presents the first molecular probe for specific LH detection but also provides a strategy to construct probes with high specificity through a bioinspired approach.
