Chemical Research in Chinese Universities ›› 2024, Vol. 40 ›› Issue (2): 225-236.doi: 10.1007/s40242-024-3290-7

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Fluorescent Probes for Cysteine and Cysteine Oxidation Imaging

ZHANG Xia1, LI Guocheng1, PAN Wei1, LI Na1, LI Yanhua1, TANG Bo1,2   

  1. 1. College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Key Laboratory of Molecular and Nano Probes, Ministry of Education, Collaborative Innovation Center of Functionalized Probes for Chemical Imaging in Universities of Shandong, Institute of Molecular and Nano Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, P. R. China;
    2. Laoshan Laboratory, Qingdao 266237, P. R. China
  • Received:2023-12-31 Revised:2024-01-29 Online:2024-04-01 Published:2024-03-27
  • Contact: LI Na lina@sdnu.edu.cn;LI Yanhua liyanhua@sdnu.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22374092, 22206117), the Project of Shandong Provincial Laboratory, China (No. SYS202207), the Youth Innovation Science and Technology Program of Higher Education Institution of Shandong Province, China (No. 2021KJ030), the Fund of the Jinan Innovation Team, China (No. 2021GXRC034), and the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (No. ZR2021QB147).

Abstract: Cysteine is an important regulator of redox processes. Due to the nucleophilic and oxidative sensitivity, cysteine residues in proteins can be oxidized by intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can lead to protein structural and functional changes. Hence, the development of fluorescent probes to image cysteine and cysteine oxidation is of great significance for the study of redox homeostasis in living system. In this review, the development of fluorescent probes for imaging cysteine and cysteine oxidation was summarized. Moreover, we further analyzed defects of the reported fluorescent probes and made suggestions for the future development of fluorescent probes. We expect that this review can not only provide a deeper understanding of the role of cysteine and cysteine oxidation in oxidative stress, but also broaden the application of fluorescent probes in imaging cysteine and cysteine oxidation.

Key words: Cysteine, Cysteine oxidation, Fluorescent probe, Oxidative stress