A cancer cell-specific fluorescent probe for imaging Cu in living cancer cells.

Monitoring copper level in cancer cells is important for the further understanding of its roles in the cell proliferation, and also could afford novel copper-based strategy for the cancer therapy. Herein, we have developed a novel cancer cell-specific fluorescent probe for the detecting Cu in living cancer cells. The probe employed biotin as the cancer cell-specific group. Before the treatment of Cu, the probe showed nearly no fluorescence. However, the probe can display strong fluorescence at 581nm in response to Cu. The probe exhibited excellent sensitivity and high selectivity for Cu over the other relative species. Under the guidance of biotin group, could be successfully used for detecting Cu in living cancer cells. We expect that this design strategy could be further applied for detection of the other important biomolecules in living cancer cells.