Cyanine-based colorimetric and fluorescent probe for the selective detection of diethylstilbestrol in seawater, shrimp and fish samples

Abstract

The synthetic estrogen drug diethylstilbestrol (DES) plays important roles in the treatment of estrogen deficiency disorders for human beings. The excessive intakes of DES can lead to physiological dysfunction and raise the risk of ovarian cancer, breast cancer and other diseases. However, it is still abused for improving the fat deposition or sex reversal procedure in aquatic economic creatures for pursuit of huge interests. DES can exist in aquatic products or polluted aquacultural seawater, which seriously threatens human health. Therefore, it is desirable to establish simple and sensitive methods for the detection of DES. In this work, we have developed a new colorimetric and fluorescent probe Cy-DES for the detection of DES with high sensitivity and selectivity. As a near-infrared probe, Cy-DES is able to avoid autofluorescence of dissolved organic compounds and maximize signal-to-background contrast. Taking advantage of the strong electrostatic interaction between the probe Cy-DES and DES, the spectroscopic properties of probe Cy-DES can be obviously changed in presence of DES. Under testing conditions, there is an excellent linearity within the range of 1–8μM (r=0.9997) and the detection limit is 0.2μM. The probe Cy-DES is successfully applied for the detection of DES in spiked seawater, shrimp and fish samples. Additionally, the detection of DES can be directly achieved by naked eyes with the utilizing of probe Cy-DES. The developed method is of great potential for application in the on-site detection of DES.