Abstract
The selective detection of citrate anions is essential for various biological functions in living systems. A quantitative assessment of citrate is required for the diagnosis of various diseases in the human body; however, it is extremely challenging to develop efficient fluorescence and color-detecting molecular probes for sensing citrate in water. Herein, we report a macrocycle-based dinuclear foldamer (1) assembled with eosin Y (EY) that has been studied for anion binding by fluorescence and colorimetric techniques in water at neutral pH. Results from the fluorescence titrations reveal that the 1·EY ensemble strongly binds citrate anions, showing remarkable selectivity over a wide range of inorganic and carboxylate anions. The addition of citrate anions to the 1·EY adduct led to a large fluorescence enhancement, displaying a detectable color change under both visible and UV light in water up to 2 μmol. The biocompatibility of 1·EY as an intracellular carrier in a biological system was evaluated on primary human foreskin fibroblast (HF) cells, showing an excellent cell viability. The strong binding properties of the ensemble allow it to be used as a highly sensitive, detective probe for biologically relevant citrate anions in various applications.
Highlights
The selective sensing of anions is an important area in supramolecular chemistry due to their significant roles in diverse chemical, biological, medicinal, and environmental science applications[1]
Through the analysis from the indicator displacement assay (IDA), we have shown that the receptor binds the citrate anion selectively over a wide range of dicarboxylates and inorganic anions, forming a 1:1 stoichiometric complex
A macrocycle-based dinuclear foldamer has been used as an efficient probe in an approach of Indicator Displacement Assay for colorimetric and fluorescent sensing of citrate, which operates by a non-covalent binding principle involving metal-ligand interactions in pure water at neutral pH
Summary
The selective sensing of anions is an important area in supramolecular chemistry due to their significant roles in diverse chemical, biological, medicinal, and environmental science applications[1]. A wide variety of host receptors have been reported that can effectively bind anions in solution and in the solid states, exhibiting selectivity toward certain anions[4,5,6,7]. In this regard, carboxylates are of great interest due to their important roles in chemistry and biology[8,9,10]. We report a macrocycle-based dinuclear copper(II) complex (1) containing a folded cavity that selectively binds citrate over a wide range of anions in pure water at neutral pH, providing a sharp color change in the presence of an external dye (eosin Y)
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