Synthesis of a fluorescent probe for the selective detection of cysteine and its application in cell imaging.

Cysteine plays a significant role in biological systems, and changes in its content are closely correlated with many human diseases. The specific identification and detection of cysteine concentrations remains a research focus. In this study, an enhanced fluorescence probe was designed and synthesized using 1-hydroxypyrene as the fluorescent group and acrylate as the recognition group. The probe exhibits high selectivity and sensitivity under slightly basic conditions at 36 °C. In addition, CCK-8 and cell imaging experiments were conducted using human esophageal cancer (KYSE-450) and human cloned colon adenocarcinoma (CaCO-2) cell lines. The fluorescent probe exhibits good fluorescence properties and low cytotoxicity in these cell lines, and its use is expected to facilitate the understanding of the pathological processes of cysteine-related diseases.