A water-soluble fluorescent probe for detecting creatinine in totally aqueous media and imaging exogenous creatinine in living cells

• DOI: 10.1007/s00216-019-01695-4
• Publication Date: 2019-03-07T05:23:33Z
• Authors: Fangkai Du; Mengru Li; Yanye Wei; Donglian Huang; Yan Zhou; Lifang Yang; Jian Chen; Shaogang Liu; Xuecai Tan
• Keywords: Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization; Proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; Water; 02 engineering and technology; HCT116 Cells; Fluorescence; Cell Line; Mice; Solubility; Limit of Detection; Creatinine; Animals; Humans; Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; 0210 nano-technology; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Palladium; Fluorescent Dyes

The design of vigorous tools for creatinine determination is extremely important in the diagnosis and treatment of kidney diseases. In the study, we examine a robust fluorescent turn-on probe (NCP-Pd) for creatinine detection in a completely aqueous solution based on the metal palladium-catalyzed reaction. In the presence of creatinine, the NCP-Pd dissociates and subsequently restores the fluorescence due to elimination of the heavy atom quenching effect and prevention of the photoinduced electron transfer effect. The probe NCP-Pd displays excellent detecting performance with respect to creatinine such as good water solubility, high selectivity, and a low detection limit (0.16 μM). Additionally, in order to ensure its clinical application, this probe is operated in blood serum samples for detecting creatinine and compared with a commercial clinical method. The results indicate an extremely high agreement with the commercial clinical method. Furthermore, the results confirm that the probe NCP-Pd exhibits satisfactory cell permeability and low cytotoxicity and can detect creatinine in L929 and HCT116 cells. The study provides a potential application for detecting creatinine and conducting pathological research on creatinine-involved diseases.