Design, synthesis, and evaluation of a carboxylesterase detection probe with therapeutic effects

In this study, a lysosomal targeting fluorescent probe recognition on CEs was designed and synthesized. The obtained probe BF₂-cur-Mor demonstrated excellent selectivity, sensitivity, pH-independence, and enzyme affinity towards CEs within 5 min. BF₂-cur-Mor could enable recognition of intracellular CEs and elucidate that the CEs content of different cancer cells follows the rule of HepG2 > HCT-116 > A549 > HeLa, and the CEs expression level of hepatoma cancer cells far exceeds that of normal hepatic cells, being in good agreement with the previous reports. The ability of BF₂-cur-Mor to monitor CEs in vivo was confirmed by zebrafish experiment. BF₂-cur-Mor exhibits some pharmacological activity in that it can induce apoptosis in hepatocellular carcinoma cells but is weaker in normal hepatocyte cells, being expected to be a potential "diagnostic and therapeutic integration" tool for the clinical diagnosis of CEs-related diseases.