Novel coumarin-based sensitive and selective fluorescent probes for biothiols in aqueous solution and in living cells

Abstract

Two novel coumarin-derived fluorescent probes were designed and synthesized for the quantitative determination of biothiols, such as cysteine (Cys), glutathione (GSH) and homocysteine (Hcy). Both probes selectively and sensitively detected biothiols in vitro, and successfully sensed biothiols in vivo with low cytotoxicity, suggesting their potential application for biothiol detection.