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Updated: Dec 11, 2025
Monitoring Neutrophil Elastase and Cathepsin G Activity in Human Sputum Samples
Published on: May 21, 2021
Activity-based ratiometric fluorescent small-molecule probe for endogenously monitoring neutrophil elastase in living
Ting Cao1, Zhidong Teng2, Lei Zheng1
1Key Laboratory of Nonferrous Metal Chemistry and Resources Utilization of Gansu Province, Special Fund Project of Guiding Scientific and Technological Innovation Development of Gansu Province (2019ZX-04), Key Laboratory of Special Function Materials and Structure Design and State Key Laboratory of Applied Organic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, 730000, PR China.
Abstract:
Neutrophil elastase (NE), a representative protease which is closely related to many diseases, acts an indispensable role in inflammatory diseases and clinical medicine. In this work, one activity-based non-peptide ratiometric fluorescent probe DCDF was designed with pentafluoropropionic anhydride as identification group. To our knowledge, this is the first probe capable of detecting NE in ratio. After the addition of the NE, the emission spectrum of DCDF has obvious bathochromic-shift phenomenon, and there is large Stokes shifts of ∼60 nm. Compared to only a few reported NE probes, DCDF is sensitive and selective and has very low detection limit (0-14 μg/mL, DL = 30.8 ng/mL). A possible response mechanism was proposed and verified by HPLC and HRMS spectra. What's more, DCDF is capable of endogenous recognition imaging in biological cells without interference from other enzymes under the ratio signal. A549 and HeLa cells were used for endogenous cell imaging experiments of NE and the feasibility of DCDF for the specific detection of NE in cells was proved. This experimental result makes probe DCDF a very promising tool for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of NE related diseases.
