A novel lophine-based fluorescence probe and its binding to human serum albumin.

The binding of a lophine-based fluorescence probe, 4-[4-(4-dimethylaminophenyl)-5-phenyl-1H-imidazol-2-yl]benzoic acid methyl ester (DAPIM) with human serum albumin (HSA) was investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy under physiological conditions. While DAPIM shows extreme low fluorescence in aqueous solution, DAPIM binding with HSA emits strong fluorescence at 510nm. The binding constant and binding number determined by Scatchard plot was 3.