Lysosome-targeting red fluorescent probe for broad carboxylesterases detection in breast cancer cells

Available online The abnormal carboxylesterase (CES) expression is closely related to many diseases such as hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, obesity, liver cancer, type 2 diabetes mellitus and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. The detection of a single enzyme in practical samples is often constrained by the structural diversity of CESs. Thus, the development of broad-carboxylesterase responsive fluorescent probe, which can detect the presence of wide variety of CESs, may provide overall or category information from another point of view, supplementing the deficiency of single detection for CES subspecies. Organelle lysosome is involved in various cell processes, such as cell signaling, apoptosis, secretion, and energy metabolism. Up to date, lysosome-targeted fluorescent probes, especially those with red emission (over 550 nm, with relatively low biological harmfulness), for CES detection are still rare. A lysosomes-targeted red fluorescent probe CES-Lyso was designed to monitor intracellular a variety of carboxylesterases alteration with wonderful selectivity and sensitivity, which was further applied to distinguish different derived breast cancer cells and monitor carboxylesterase activity in the anticancer drug treatment.