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Synergistic Coordination and Hydrogen Bonding Interaction Modulate the Emission of Iridium Complex for Highly Sensitive Glutamine Imaging in Live Cells
journal contribution
posted on 2016-09-30, 00:00 authored by Qin Jiang, Ming Wang, Lifen Yang, Hui Chen, Lanqun MaoHighly
selective detection of intracellular glutamine (Gln) is
very essential to understand the roles of Gln in some biological processes.
Here, we report a new fluorescent method for selective imaging of
Gln in live cells with an aldehyde-containing iridium complex, [Ir(pba)2(DMSO)2]PF6 (Hpba = 4-(2-pyridiyl)benzaldehyde)
(Ir1), as the probe. Density functional theory (DFT) calculation and
experimental results suggest that the coordination and hydrogen bonding
interaction between Ir1 and Gln synergistically stabilize the Ir1–Gln
complex, modulate charge-transfer characteristics and emission of
Ir1, and as a consequence, enable Ir1 as the probe for the fluorescent
sensing of Gln. The sensing strategy is well-responsive to Gln without
interference from other amino acids or Gln-containing peptides and
is demonstrated to be useful for in situ Gln imaging in live cells.
The study provides a new method for fluorescent imaging of Gln in
live cells, which is envisioned to find interesting applications in
understanding the roles of Gln in some physiological processes.