Abstract

A polarity-sensitive fluorescent probe MNP was rationally designed and synthesized with naphthalimide as the fluorophore and maleimide as the receptor for thiols. MNP is weakly fluorescent due to the photoinduced electron-transfer (PET) from the fluorophore to the receptor, and it displays evidently solvatochromic UV–vis and fluorescence spectra: the emission shifted from 495nm in n-hexane to 545nm in phosphate buffer solution. Michael addition reaction between thiols and the maleimide in MNP inhibited the PET process, which led to about eight-fold fluorescence enhancement. In addition, MNP showed highly sensitivity to mercapto-containing proteins and it could detect as low as 20.4μg/mL of BSA in PBS. MNP has potential in fluorescent imaging of thiols in living cells.

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