A novel and effective benzo[d]thiazole-based fluorescent probe with dual recognition factors for highly sensitive and selective imaging of cysteine in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

Cysteine (Cys) plays a key role in all life forms. In the present study, a novel and effective fluorescent probe, 2-(benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)-1,4-phenylene diacrylate (BT-AC), was developed for selectively sensing Cys over other analytes. BT-AC alone essentially emits no fluorescence, whereas it achieves a 4725-fold enhancement with a large Stokes shift (135 nm) in the presence of Cys. Moreover, the limit of detection of the fluorescent assay was as low as 32.6 nM Cys. The fluorescence response of BT-AC to calf serum provided strong evidence of the practical applicability of this probe. This probe was successfully used for imaging Cys in HepG2 cells and zebrafish.