The development of simple and sensitive small-molecule fluorescent probes for the detection of serum proteins after native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis

Abstract

In this paper, a simple and sensitive small-molecule fluorescent probe, 2,5-dihydroxy-4'-dimethylaminochalcone (DHDMAC), was designed and synthesized for the detection of human serum proteins via hydrophobic interactions after polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (PAGE). This probe produced lower fluorescence emission in the absence of proteins, and the emission intensity was significantly increased after the interaction with serum proteins. To demonstrate the imaging performance of this probe as a fluorescent dye, a series of experiments was conducted that included sensitivity comparison and 2D-PAGE. The results indicated that the sensitivity of DHDMAC staining is comparable to that of the most widely used fluorescent dye, SYPRO Ruby, and more protein spots (including thyroxine-binding globulin, angiotensinogen, afamin, zinc-α-2-glycoprotein and α-1-antichymotrypsin) were detected after 2D-PAGE. Therefore, DHDMAC is a good protein reporter due to its fast staining procedure, low detection limits and high resolution.

A ‘turn‐on’ fluorescent chemosensor for quantification of serum albumin in aqueous solution at neutral pH

“…According to previous reports, many chromophores usually interact with serum albumin by noncovalent binding such as electrostatic "turn-on" fluorescent chemosensor for quantification of serum albumin and hydrophobic interactions (28)(29)(30). In order to find out the interaction modes between 1 and BSA, urea and a series of proteins were introduced to study the fluorescence spectral changes.…”