Issue 11, 2016

A protein–dye hybrid system as a narrow range tunable intracellular pH sensor

Abstract

Accurate monitoring of pH variations inside cells is important for the early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer. Even though a variety of different pH sensors are available, construction of a custom-made sensor array for measuring minute variations in a narrow biological pH window, using easily available constituents, is a challenge. Here we report two-component hybrid sensors derived from a protein and organic dye nanoparticles whose sensitivity range can be tuned by choosing different ratios of the components, to monitor the minute pH variations in a given system. The dye interacts noncovalently with the protein at lower pH and covalently at higher pH, triggering two distinguishable fluorescent signals at 700 and 480 nm, respectively. The pH sensitivity region of the probe can be tuned for every unit of the pH window resulting in custom-made pH sensors. These narrow range tunable pH sensors have been used to monitor pH variations in HeLa cells using the fluorescence imaging technique.

Graphical abstract: A protein–dye hybrid system as a narrow range tunable intracellular pH sensor

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
17 jun. 2016
Accepted
12 jul. 2016
First published
15 jul. 2016
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 6808-6814

A protein–dye hybrid system as a narrow range tunable intracellular pH sensor

P. Anees, K. V. Sudheesh, P. Jayamurthy, A. R. Chandrika, R. V. Omkumar and A. Ajayaghosh, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 6808 DOI: 10.1039/C6SC02659A

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