D-A-D type based NIR fluorescence probe for monitoring the cysteine levels in pancreatic cancer cell during ferroptosis

Cysteine (Cys) as a crucial precursor for intracellular glutathione (GSH) synthesis, plays an important role in the redox regulation in ferroptosis, Therefore, evaluating intracellular Cys levels is worthy to better understand ferroptosis-related physiological process. In this work, we constructed a novel NIR coumarin-derived fluorescent probe (NCDFP-Cys) based on a dual-ICT system, the NCDFP-Cys can show fluorescence turn-on response at 717 nm toward Cys over other amino acids, and possess large Stokes shift (Δλ = 167 nm), low detection limit, hypotoxicity. More significantly, NCDFP-Cys has been utilized to monitor the intracellular Cys fluctuation in pancreatic cancer cells during ferroptosis induced by Erastin and RSL3 respectively, and revealing the difference of Cys levels changes in different activator-triggered ferroptosis pathways.