Rapid sensing and imaging of methylglyoxal in living cells enabled by a near-infrared fluorescent probe.

A novel near-infrared fluorescent probe (SWJT-2) has been designed and synthesized for the detection of methylglyoxal (MGO). It showed a low detection limit (0.32 µM), high selectivity and the fastest detection (15 min) over various reactive carbonyl compounds in aqueous solution. SWJT-2 had been successfully applied to bioimaging in HeLa cells to detect exogenous and endogenous MGO.

A novel near-infrared fluorescent probe based on isophorone for the bioassay of endogenous cysteine.

A dicyanoisophorone/acrylate-combined probe (DDP) was synthesized and designed as a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent sensor for the rapid identification of Cys over Hcy and GSH in aqueous solution with a large Stokes shift (143 nm). The detection limit of Cys was 1.23 µM, which was lower than that of the intracellular Cys concentration. DDP was cell membrane-permeable and had been successfully applied to the detection of intracellular Cys in HeLa cells. The detection mechanism was determined by 1H NMR titration, MS and DFT calculations.