A Highly Butyrylcholinesterase Selective Red-Emissive Mitochondria-Targeted Fluorescent Indicator Imaging In Liver Tissue Of Mice

A long-emitting (lambda(ex) = 580 nm, lambda(em) = 628 nm) mitochondrial targeting butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) selective fluorescent chemosensor (BChE-NBD) has been synthesized. A prominent fluorescence enhancement only for BChE was found in aqueous solution. BChE-NBD has low biological toxicity and has been successfully applied to the detection and imaging of BChE in mitochondria in a variety of cells and not interfered by other analytes (especially acetylcholinesterase). More importantly, imaging study of the distribution of the BChE in mice was performed first time, which confirmed the widespread existence of the enzyme in liver tissue. This making the probe BChE-NBD hopeful to be an effective tool for investigates liver diseases in basic medicine and clinical applications.