Issue 13, 2019

Evaluation of HOCl-generating anticancer agents by an ultrasensitive dual-mode fluorescent probe

Abstract

Hypochlorous acid (HOCl), a reactive oxygen species (ROS), plays a crucial role in the process of pathogenic oxidative stress. Some powerful anticancer agents, such as elesclomol, specifically induce cancer cell apoptosis by increasing HOCl levels. However, sensitive tools to monitor subtle changes of biological HOCl in vivo are limited. To achieve this, we herein present rationally designed probes C1–C7 through introducing a bioorthogonal dimethylthiocarbamate receptor. All the probes were shown to sensitively and rapidly detect HOCl in the nanomolar/biologically relevant concentration range with fluorescence turn-on observed in their respective optical regions, resulting in a blue-to-red “fluorescence rainbow” and providing a broad selection of colors for imaging HOCl in vivo. Remarkably, probe C7 exhibited both a turn-on signal at biologically relevant concentrations (LOD1 = 18 nM) and a ratiometric response at the high risk pathogenic concentrations (LOD2 = 0.47 μM), which gives a higher reliability compared to a single signal and avoids cross-talk caused by the combined use of several probes. C7 was used to monitor the oxidative stress process induced by elesclomol in live cancer cells, and using this probe it was further discovered that an evodiamine derivative was capable of generating cancer-cell HOCl.

Graphical abstract: Evaluation of HOCl-generating anticancer agents by an ultrasensitive dual-mode fluorescent probe

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
12 jan 2019
Accepted
03 mar 2019
First published
04 mar 2019
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., 2019,10, 3715-3722

Evaluation of HOCl-generating anticancer agents by an ultrasensitive dual-mode fluorescent probe

D. Shi, S. Chen, B. Dong, Y. Zhang, C. Sheng, T. D. James and Y. Guo, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 3715 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC00180H

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