A far-red emitting probe for unambiguous detection of mobile zinc in acidic vesicles and deep tissue

Imaging mobile zinc in acidic environments remains challenging because most small-molecule optical probes display pH-dependent fluorescence. Here we report a reaction-based sensor that detects mobile zinc unambiguously at low pH. The sensor responds reversibly and with a large dynamic range to exoge...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Khan, Mustafa, Georgiou, John, Luyben, Thomas T., Roder, John C., Okamoto, Kenichi, Rivera Fuentes, Pablo Marcelo, Wrobel, Alexandra T., Zastrow, Melissa L., Lippard, Stephen J.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemistry
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Royal Society of Chemistry, The 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/110418
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5910-6948
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2693-4982
Description
Summary:Imaging mobile zinc in acidic environments remains challenging because most small-molecule optical probes display pH-dependent fluorescence. Here we report a reaction-based sensor that detects mobile zinc unambiguously at low pH. The sensor responds reversibly and with a large dynamic range to exogenously applied Zn²⁺ in lysosomes of HeLa cells, endogenous Zn²⁺ in insulin granules of MIN6 cells, and zinc-rich mossy fiber boutons in hippocampal tissue from mice. This long-wavelength probe is compatible with the green-fluorescent protein, enabling multicolor imaging, and facilitates visualization of mossy fiber boutons at depths of >100 μm, as demonstrated by studies in live tissue employing two-photon microscopy.