Fluorescent peptide probes for organophosphorus pesticides detection

Extensive use of organophosphorus pesticides (OPs) in crop protection has aroused worldwidely great concern about safety and the detection of OPs is of great significance to food safety and human health. In this work, peptides attached with tetraphenylethylene (TPE) molecule were synthesized to from an aggregation-induced emission fluorescent probe (TPE-Peptide) for the determination of OPs. The working mechanism was as follows: in presence of OPs, OPs would react with active site serine in the peptide sequence via covalent bond and adducts were formed between OPs and the peptides; once formed, the adducts accelerated the aggregation of peptides, thus inducing strong emission of TPE-Peptide probe. So the adducts formation and the enhanced emission of the TPE-Peptide probe were the key factors for the OPs' sensing. Herein, the adducts formed between OPs and TPE-Peptide probe, the aggregated peptide fibrils were characterized by fluorescence, mass spectrometry, transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, circular dichroism spectra and confocal fluorescence microscopy etc. This TPE-Peptide probe displayed highly sensitive fluorescence response where OPs' concentrations ranged from 1 to 100 μM with the limit of detection 0.6 μM and also showed selectivity.