A Double-Thiadiazole-Derived Fluorescent Probe for the Cyclooxygenase-2 Detection in Colorectal Tumor-Inflammation Interaction.

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is an attractive biomarker for the early diagnosis in colorectal tumor. The previous fluorescent probes for the COX-2 detection relied on the inhibitors. The affection on the enzymatic activity may impact the accuracy. Herein, a double-thiadiazole-derived fluorescent probe BTD-COX2 was developed for the COX-2 detection in colorectal tumor-inflammation interaction. The design concept avoided the direct use of the moieties from the COX-2 inhibitors, and selected the thiadiazole subunit to construct the interaction. BTD-COX2 responded to COX-2 with the fluorescence enhancement at 486 nm under the excitation of 370 nm. The detection indicated the advantages including broad linear range (0-200 nM), high sensitivity (limit of detection 0.006 nM), stable reporting signals, high selectivity, and low cytotoxicity. BTD-COX2 achieved monitoring the variation of the COX-2 level in the basic tumor-inflammation interaction. The findings in this work suggested the potential of combined therapeutic strategies targeting both inflammation and tumor progression.