title: Preparation of Yellow-Green-Emissive Carbon Dots and Their Application in Constructing a Fluorescent Turn-On Nanoprobe for Imaging of Selenol in Living Cells.
abstract: Selenocysteine (Sec) carries out the majority of the functions of the various Se-containing species in vivo. Thus, it is of great importance to develop sensitive and selective assays to detect Sec. Herein, a carbon-dot-based fluorescent turn-on probe for highly selective detection of selenol in living cells is presented. The highly photoluminescent carbon dots that emit yellow-green fluorescence (Y-G-CDs; λmax= 520 nm in water) were prepared by using m-aminophenol as carbon precursor through a facile solvothermal method. The surface of Y-G-CDs was then covalently functionalized with 2,4-dinitrobenzenesulfonyl chloride (DNS-Cl) to afford the 2,4-dinitrobenzene-functionalized CDs (CD-DNS) as a nanoprobe for selenol. CD-DNS is almost nonfluorescent. However, upon treating with Sec, the DNS moiety of CD-DNS can be readily cleaved by selenolate through a nucleophilic substitution process, resulting in the formation of highly fluorescent Y-G-CDs and hence leads to a dramatic increase in fluorescence intensity. The proposed nanoprobe exhibits high sensitivity and selectivity toward Sec over biothiols and other biological species. A preliminary study shows that CD-DNS can function as a useful tool for fluorescence imaging of exogenous and endogenous selenol in living cells.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710127, P. R. China.|School of Chemistry and Environment Science, Shaanxi Sci-Tech University , Hanzhong, Shaanxi 723000, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710127, P. R. China.|School of Chemistry and Environment Science, Shaanxi Sci-Tech University , Hanzhong, Shaanxi 723000, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Shengrui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710069, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yaogang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710127, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Feng
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3640-2741
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Life Sciences, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710069, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of Ministry of Education, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710127, P. R. China.|College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xi'an Shiyou University , Xi'an, Shaanxi 710065, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000627:Aminophenols / Q000737:chemistry; D000818:Animals; D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D002460:Cell Line; D004136:Dinitrobenzenes / Q000737:chemistry; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D051379:Mice; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D045663:Quantum Dots / Q000737:chemistry*; D018036:Selenium Compounds / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000627:Aminophenols; D004136:Dinitrobenzenes; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D018036:Selenium Compounds; C442270:selenol; D002244:Carbon; C055528:3-aminophenol