Studies On Synthesis And Properties Of Glutathione-responsive Fluorescent Probes

Glutathione, an important active substance in vivo, occupies varies physiological functions. Studies have shown that glutathione is used to the treatment for poisoning, such as fluoride, acrylonitrile, heavy metals and organic solvents; protecting cell membranes from oxidative damage; the promotion of methemoglobin reduction; the protection of leukopenia symptoms caused by cancer drugs and radioactive drugs; relieving the discomfort caused by hypoxia hyperlipidemia, nausea and liver disease. Too high or too low level of glutathione will affect the normal physiological function, resulting in a number of diseases such as liver damage, cancer, AIDS, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiovascular disease and so on, thus it is very important to maintain the level of glutathione in vivo.Since the cysteine, homocysteine and glutathione have the similar molecular skeleton and reaction site (such as SH group), effectively detecting glutathione in living cells is quite difficult. Thus, it is a big challenge to design a fast, efficient and accurate method to detect glutathione in cells.In this paper, we designed and synthesized three types of glutathione fluorescent probes. Details are as follows:1. We designed and synthesized a Cu2+/glutathione fluorescent probe containing a fluorophore of dansylsulfonamide. Results show that the probe is capable of selectively detecting Cu2+ without interference from other metal ions under physiological conditions, and the complexes of Cu2+ and the probe could further be used for the detection of glutathione.2. We designed and synthesized a glutathione fluorescent probe containing a fluorophore of heptamethine dye. Results show that the probe is capable of selectively detecting glutathione without interference from other metal ions under physiological conditions. And bioimagings show that the probe can be applied to the detection of glutathione and distinguish glutathione from cysteine and homocysteine in living cells. Further, confocal images show that this probe could be used to detect glutathione in mice and the product can be further discharged.3. We designed and synthesized a glutathione fluorescent probe containing a fluorophore of 1,8-naphthalimide sulfonamide. Fluorescence spectras show that the probe is capable of selectively detecting glutathione and distinguish glutathione from cysteine and homocysteine. Bioimagings show that this probe could be applied to the detection of glutathione in living cells and visualize the level of GSH in lysosomes.