Quantitation of Albumin in Serum Using “Turn-on” Fluorescent Probe with Aggregation-Enhanced Emission Characteristics

Abstract

An aggregation-enhanced emission active luminogen named as sodium 4,4'4″-(3,4-diphenyl-1H-pyrrole-1,2,5-triyl)tribenzoate (DP-TPPNa) with propeller construction was synthesized and developed as a "turn on" fluorescent probe for in situ quantitation of albumin in blood serum. The DP-TPPNa fluorescence intensity was linearly correlated with the concentration of two serum albumins, bovine serum albumin (BSA) and human serum albumin (HSA), in pure PBS buffer in the ranges of 2.18-70 and 1.68-100 μg/mL, respectively. The detection limits were as low as 2.18 μg/mL for BSA and 1.68 μg/mL for HSA. The response time of fluorescence to serum albumin (SA) was very short (below 6 s), which achieved real-time detection. It also showed high selectivity to SA because other components in serum barely interfere with the detection of DP-TPPNa to SA, enabling in situ quantitative detection of SA without isolation from serum. DP-TPPNa was successfully applied for the quantitative detection of BSA in fetal bovine serum. The mechanism of fluorescent turn-on behavior was elucidated utilizing an unfolding process induced by guanidine hydrochloride, which revealed a capture process via selective hydrophobic interaction and hydrogen bonding between luminogen and SA.

Squaraine Dyes: Interaction with Bovine Serum Albumin to Investigate Supramolecular Adducts with Aggregation‐Induced Emission (AIE) Properties

“…AIE is a unique photophysical phenomenon associated with chromophore aggregation. Fluorogens with aggregation‐induced emission characteristics have recently emerged as a new class of fluorescent bioprobes for biosensing and cell imaging . Instead of fluorescence quenching, the emission of luminogens with AIE characteristics is turned on when they are aggregated.…”

“…AIE is an ovel photophysical phenomenon found in ag roup of luminogens that are non-fluorescent in solution but are highly emissive in the aggregate or solid state. [9,10] AIE is a unique photophysical phenomenon associated with chromophore aggregation.F luorogens with aggregation-induced emission characteristics have recently emerged as an ew class of fluorescent bioprobes for biosensing [11,12] and cell imaging. [13,14] Instead of fluorescenceq uenching, the emission of luminogens with AIE characteristics is turned on when they are aggregated.…”

“…It is therefore evident that there is an urgent need and challenge for the development of novel fluorescent probes to serve as ap latform for av ariety of applications and these adducts are very interesting since they can be used as effective bioimaging probeso ra ss ensors, [20,21] as photothermal absorber agents with improved photodestruction efficacy [19] or for photoacoustic tomography. [22] Moreover,B SA-dyes adducts can be of the utmost importance for the preparation of protein biophosphors for white emission, sensing and pH detection, [23] Solid-state lighting (SSL) based on Biological Materials, [24] detection and quantitationo fi ons [12,17,25] and others peciesi n blood serum or the development of bio-hybrid white LEDs (Bio-HWLEDs). [26] In this scenario, since the importance of these adducts,i n the presentp aper we show our results on at hermodynamic and kinetic study undertaken on the interaction between BSA and as eries of squaraine dyes, with different substitutions.…”

Aggregation‐Induced Emission of Multiphenyl‐Substituted 1,3‐Butadiene Derivatives: Synthesis, Properties and Application

“…In addition to silole, many other organic compounds with AIE characteristics have been developed so far,s uch as tetraphenylethene (TPE) [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] and aryl-substituted pyrroles. [14][15][16][17] Luminogens with AIE features have been defined as AIEgens by Tang. [3] To date, AIEgensh ave been used in av ariety of fields such as organic light-emitting diodes, [18][19][20][21][22][23] chemosensors [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] and biosensors.…”

Construction of Bovine Serum Albumin/AIE‐Based Quaternary Complexes for Efficient Gene Transfection

“…synthesized a targeted peptide‐based fluorescent probe with specific nucleus imaging and long‐term tracing of cancer cells and low‐toxicity characteristics . Tang's group and other groups utilized AIEgens as a bioprobe to detect and quantify BSA due to their selectivity, sensitivity, and rapidity, based on the fact that the hydrophobic interaction between BSA and AIEgens gives rise to the restriction of intramolecular rotation.…”