Facile synthesis of a two-photon fluorescent probe based on pyrimidine 2-isothiocyanate and its application in bioimaging

Abstract

Two-photon microscopy imaging has been widely applied in biological imaging, but the development of two-photon absorption probes is obviously lagging behind in the development of imaging technology. In this paper, a two-photon fluorescent probe (1) based on pyrimidine 2-isothiocyanate has been designed and synthesized through a simple method for two-photon biological imaging. Probe 1 was able to couple effectively with the amino groups on biomolecules. To verify the reactivity of the isothiocyanate group on probe 1 and the amine groups on the biomolecules, D-glucosamine was chosen as a model biomolecule to conjugate with probe 1. The result showed that probe 1 could effectively conjugate with D-glucosamine to synthesize probe 2, and the yield of probe 2 was 83%. After conjugating with D-glucosamine, linear absorption spectra, single-photon fluorescence spectra, and two-photon fluorescence spectra of probes 1 and 2 did not present significant changes. Probes 1 and 2 exhibited high fluorescence quantum yields (0.71–0.79) in toluene and chloroform. They also exhibited different photo-physical properties in solvents with different polarities. The two-photon absorption cross-section of probe 1 was 953 GM in toluene. In addition, probe 1 could be effectively conjugated with transferrin, and the conjugated probe (Tf–1) could be transported into Hep G2 cells through a receptor-mediated process for biological imaging. These results demonstrate that such probes are expected to have great potential applications in two-photon fluorescence bioimaging.