We investigated a novel water-soluble conjugated polymer (WSCP) for thiol detection based on "turn-off" ef- fect. This WSCP was modified with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) by disulfide linkages to achieve good s...We investigated a novel water-soluble conjugated polymer (WSCP) for thiol detection based on "turn-off" ef- fect. This WSCP was modified with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) by disulfide linkages to achieve good solubility in aqueous solution (34 mg/mL) and high quantum yield (0.47). The separation of water-soluble PEG chains from the conjugated backbone induced by the cleavage of the disulfide linkages would lead to a significant decrease of the water solubility and a dramatical fluorescence quenching of the probe. The combined intuitive images and fluores- cence spectrophotometer further confirmed that decreased solubility produced an aggregation of the hydrophobic conjugated backbone. The fluorescence intensity of the probe showed a good linear relationship with glutathione (GSH) (1-200 nmol·L^-1), and the detection limit was 16 nmol·L^-1. This WSCP probe was confirmed to be a good sensing material with high selectivity to thiols by testing various biological molecules. And this WSCP probe ex- hibited good detection effect to intracellular thiols by testing Hela cells. Considering the good sensitivity and selec- tivity, the probe could be further used in vivo. In conclusion, this conjugated polymer probe made up for the draw- backs of the micromolecue probes and contributed to the development of new probes based on conjugated poly- mers.展开更多
文摘We investigated a novel water-soluble conjugated polymer (WSCP) for thiol detection based on "turn-off" ef- fect. This WSCP was modified with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) by disulfide linkages to achieve good solubility in aqueous solution (34 mg/mL) and high quantum yield (0.47). The separation of water-soluble PEG chains from the conjugated backbone induced by the cleavage of the disulfide linkages would lead to a significant decrease of the water solubility and a dramatical fluorescence quenching of the probe. The combined intuitive images and fluores- cence spectrophotometer further confirmed that decreased solubility produced an aggregation of the hydrophobic conjugated backbone. The fluorescence intensity of the probe showed a good linear relationship with glutathione (GSH) (1-200 nmol·L^-1), and the detection limit was 16 nmol·L^-1. This WSCP probe was confirmed to be a good sensing material with high selectivity to thiols by testing various biological molecules. And this WSCP probe ex- hibited good detection effect to intracellular thiols by testing Hela cells. Considering the good sensitivity and selec- tivity, the probe could be further used in vivo. In conclusion, this conjugated polymer probe made up for the draw- backs of the micromolecue probes and contributed to the development of new probes based on conjugated poly- mers.