The fluorescence regulation of a tri-functional oligonucleotide probe HEX-OND in detecting Pb(II), cysteine, and K(I)...

A novel tri-functional probe HEX-OND was developed for detecting Pb(II), cysteine (Cys), and K(I) by fluorescence quenching, recovery, and amplification strategies respectively, based on Pb(II)-induced chair-type G-quadruplex (CGQ) and K(I)-induced parallel G-quadruplex (PGQ). The thermodynamic mechanism was illustrated as that HEX-OND transformed into CGQ by associating equimolar Pb(II) (K₁ = 1.10 ± 0.25 × 10⁶ L/mol), forcing (G)₂ spontaneously approaching and static-quenching HEX (5'-hexachlorofluorescein phosphoramidite) in the photo-induced electron transfer (PET) way by the van der Waals force and hydrogen bond (K₂ = 5.14 ± 1.65 × 10⁷ L/mol); the additional Cys recovered fluorescence in the molecular ratio of 2:1 via Pb(II)-precipitation induced CGQ destruction (K₃ = 3.03 ± 0.77 × 10⁹ L/mol); the equimolar K(I) induced HEX-OND transforming into PGQ (K₄ = 3.53 ± 0.30 × 10⁴ L/mol) and specifically associating with the equimolar N-methyl mesoporphyrin IX (NMM) by hydrophobic force (K₅ = 3.48 ± 1.08 × 10⁵ L/mol), leading to the fluorescence enhancement. Moreover, the practicability results showed that the detection limits reached a nanomolar level for Pb(II) and Cys and micromolar for K(I), with mere disturbances for 6, 10, and 5 kinds of other substances, respectively; no significant deviations of the real sample detection results were found between the well-understood methods with ours in detecting Pb(II) and Cys, and K(I) could be recognized and quantified even in the presence of Na(I) with 5000 and 600 fold respectively. The results demonstrated the triple-function, sensitivity, selectivity, and tremendous application feasibility of the current probe in sensing Pb(II), Cys, and K(I).