Exploring cysteine regulation in cancer cell survival with a highly specific “Lock and Key” fluorescent probe for cysteine

Abstract

Using a highly specific “lock and key” fluorescent Cys probe, we confirmed that targeting Cys metabolism to deplete intracellular Cys is a more potent strategy to sensitize cancer cells to chemotherapies.

The chronological evolution of small organic molecular fluorescent probes for thiols

“…23 In a recent study, a GSH S-substituted Si–rhodamine compound could be attracted by Cys to form a stable Cys N-substituted Si–rhodamine compound. 84 Another excellent probe design, reported by the Guo group in 2014, constructed three potential reaction sites in a single fluorescent probe ( 18 ) for the simultaneous discrimination of Cys and GSH via different emission channels. 85 A similar design strategy was later used for the simultaneous discrimination of Cys, Hcy and GSH using three emission channels.…”

“…Considering the natural concentration gradient of thiols in cells, the existence of a high concentration of GSH would consume an internalized probe significantly and, thus, interfere with the semi-quantitative detection of Cys or Hcy in cells. 84,87 …”

Simultaneous detection of small molecule thiols with a simple 19F NMR platform

“…3B). [33][34][35][36] Fortunately, wPSP-4F could well distinguish the possible intermediates of g-Glu-Cys and Cys-Gly (Fig. 3B and S28 †).…”

Fluorescent probes based on nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions for reactive sulfur and selenium species: Recent progress, applications, and design strategies

“…In a follow-up study, Guo et al introduced Si into the rhodamine fluorophore and designed a cysteine-specific fluorescent probe with 4-methoxythiophenol as the detection group ( Fig. 7 , panel 22 ) [188] . The detection range of this probe for Cys was 0–2 μM, with λ ex = 488 nm and λ em = 620 nm, and the limit of detection was 2.6 nM.…”