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Updated: Jan 16, 2026
Author Spotlight: Fluorescence-Based Quantification of Mitochondrial Membrane Potential and Superoxide Levels Using Live Imaging in HeLa Cells
Published on: May 12, 2023
An ICT-based mitochondrial binding enhanced fluorescent probe for measurement of monoamine oxidase A in living cells
Daian Chen1, Zhen Guo2, Yingcai Hu3
1Institute of Applied Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha, 410004, China; State Key Laboratory of Chemo and Biosensing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.
Abstract:
In this study, we developed an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT)-based fluorescent probe (TPA-S-P), which features a donor-π-acceptor push-pull architecture, in which the donor triphenylamine (TPA) moiety was conjugated to the 1-methyltetrahydropyridine (P) acceptor moiety through a thiophene (S) bridge. In the presence of Monoamine Oxidase A (MAO-A), the P acceptor moiety was oxidized to a positively charged methylpyridinium moiety (Ps), which was capable of binding to the negatively charged mitochondrial membrane, resulting in significantly enhanced fluorescent emission signals. Compared with other potential interfering substances, TPA-S-P showed excellent selectivity for MAO-A. We verified the excellent imaging performance of TPA-S-P through the in vitro imaging experiment of SH-SY5Y cell model. TPA-S-P is expected to become a powerful tool to monitor MAO-A activity for the future study of MAO-A related diseases.
