Selective Detection of Cu+ Ions in Live Cells via Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging Microscopy

  • Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2021 Oct 18;60(43):23148-23153. doi: 10.1002/anie.202109349.
Martin Priessner  1 ,  Peter A Summers  1 ,  Benjamin W Lewis  1 ,  Magdalena Sastre  2 ,  Liming Ying  3 ,  Marina K Kuimova  1 ,  Ramon Vilar  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, White City Campus, London, W12 0BZ, UK.
  • 2. Department of Brain Sciences, Imperial College London, Hammersmith Campus, London, W12 0NN, UK.
  • 3. National Heart and Lung Institute, Molecular Sciences Research Hub, White City Campus, Imperial College London, London, W12 0BZ, UK.
PMID: 34379368 DOI: 10.1002/anie.202109349
Abstract

Copper is an essential trace element in living organisms with its levels and localisation being carefully managed by the cellular machinery. However, if misregulated, deficiency or excess of copper ions can lead to several diseases. Therefore, it is important to have reliable methods to detect, monitor and visualise this metal in cells. Herein we report a new optical probe based on BODIPY, which shows a switch-on in its fluorescence intensity upon binding to copper(I), but not in the presence of high concentration of Other physiologically relevant metal ions. More interestingly, binding to copper(I) leads to significant changes in the fluorescence lifetime of the new probe, which can be used to visualize copper(I) pools in lysosomes of live cells via fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM).

Keywords
FLIM .; TCSPC; copper(I); fluorescence; lifetime.
Products