Development of a coumarin-based fluorescent probe for selective measurement of tyrosinase activity in living cells

A new coumarin derivative with 3-position substitution was designed and synthesized to detect tyrosinase activity. After the novel low molecular weight fluorescent probe incubation with tyrosinase, a significant increase in the fluorescence emission signal at 445 nm was observed, showing a remarkable fluorescence turn-on effect with high sensitivity (limit of detection was 0.5 U·mL−1), good selectivity, a fast response. It was easily used to accurately measure the actual activity of tyrosinase in complex biological samples.