A Highly Selective Turn-on Fluorescent Probe for the Detection of Aluminum and Its Application to Bio-Imaging.

Liguo Wang,Jing Yang,Chongzhao Ran,Huan Wang,Ying Su,Long Zhao

doi:10.3390/s19112423

Abstract

Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth’s crust and acts as a non-essential element for biological species. The accumulation of excessive amounts of aluminum can be harmful to biological species. Thus, the development of convenient and selective tools for the aluminum detection is necessary. In this work, a highly selective aluminum ion fluorescent probe N’-(2,5-dihydroxybenzylidene)acetohydrazide (Al-II) has been successfully synthesized and systemically characterized. The fluorescence intensity of this probe shows a significant enhancement in the presence of Al3+, which is subject to the strong quench effects caused by Cu2+ and Fe3+. The binding ratio of probe-Al3+ was determined from the Job’s plot to be 1:1. Moreover, the probe was demonstrated to be effective for in vivo imaging of the intracellular aluminum ion in both living Drosophila S2 cells and Malpighian tubules.

Highlights

Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth’s crust
Aluminum is a non-essential element for the human body
The accumulation of excessive amounts of aluminum can be harmful to human bodies, causing many medical problems and illnesses, including neurodegenerative and neurological disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease or Parkinson’s disease [3–7]

Summary

Introduction

Aluminum is the most abundant metallic element in the Earth’s crust. It can be found in a wide range of plants, drinking water, and food. It is commonly used as metallic materials in the industrial and medical fields [1–3]. It is urgent to develop the convenient and selective methods for the detection of aluminum. There has been considerable progress for the detection of aluminum utilizing fluorescent chemo-sensors [10–15]. There are still many limitations during the application of most reported fluorescent probes, such as working well only in anhydrous systems, poor selectivity or sensitivity, and weak binding ability [13,16–19].

Methods

Results

Conclusion