Preparation and functionalization of a visible-light-excited europium complex-modified luminescent protein for cell imaging applications.
Lanthanide complex-based luminescent bioprobes have shown great utility in a variety of time-resolved luminescence bioassays, but these bioprobes often require UV excitation and suffer from problems related to bioaffinity and biocompatibility for in vivo applications. In this work, a new visible-light-excited europium(III) complex with the maximum excitation wavelength over 400 nm, BHHBB-Eu(3+)-BPT {BHHBB: 1,2-bis[4'-(1'',1'',1'',2'',2'',3'',3''-heptafluoro-4'',6''-hexanedion-6''-yl)-benzyl]-benzene; BPT: 2-(N,N-diethylanilin-4-yl)-4,6-bis(pyrazol-1-yl)-1,3,5-triazine}, has been synthesized for the preparation of an artificial luminescent protein that can be used as a visible-light-excited luminescent bioprobe for cell imaging. By encapsulating BHHBB-Eu(3+)-BPT into apoferritin with a simple dissociation-reassembly method, the luminescent protein, Eu@AFt, with a maximum excitation peak at 420 nm and a long luminescence lifetime of 365 μs was fabricated and successfully used for visible-light-excited time-resolved luminescence cell imaging. Moreover, by conjugating a mitochondria-targeting molecule, (5-N-succinimidoxy-5-oxopentyl)-triphenylphosphonium bromide (SPTPP), onto the surface of Eu@AFt, a mitochondria-specifically-tracking luminescent probe, Eu@AFt-SPTPP, was further prepared and used for visible-light-excited confocal luminescence microscopy imaging to visualize the mitochondria of living cells.
State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, School of Chemistry, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China. zhiqiangye2001@aliyun.com jingliyuan@aliyun.com.
Lu
L
Tian
Zhichao
Z
Dai
Zhiqiang
Z
Ye
Bo
B
Song
Jingli
J
Yuan
D005063:Europium / Q000737:chemistry*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D008027:Light; D008163:Luminescent Measurements / Q000379:methods*; D008164:Luminescent Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*
D008164:Luminescent Proteins; D005063:Europium