A hepatocyte-targeting fluorescent probe of dicyanomethylene-4H-pyran to detect cysteine in living cells and zebrafish: Design, synthesis and evaluation

In this study, a novel hepatocyte-targeting fluorescent probe DCM-Cys-Gal detecting cysteine (Cys) was developed. The low toxic DCM-Cys-Gal could simultaneously exhibit good sensitivity and selectivity, long emission wavelength, low detection limit toward Cys, and pH independency under the physiological range. The responsive mechanism of DCM-Cys-Gal toward Cys was proposed based on LC-MS and Job's plot experiment. DCM-Cys-Gal could effectively differentiate hepatocellular carcinoma cells from other tissue cells, and visualize detection Cys in zebrafish, which could be conducive to the early diagnosis of Cys-related diseases.