Rational design of a ratiometric indicator-displacement assay for the monitoring of chlortetracycline and intracellular imaging

Yixin Li; Yujian Cai; Mingyuan Zhang; Zhongyong Xu; Yuting Luo; Yi Cai; Zhiqing Xun; Taoyuze Lv; Yalong Wang; Tianyi Qin; Bin Liu; Mingqiang Zhu

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2024.127251

Rational design of a ratiometric indicator-displacement assay for the monitoring of chlortetracycline and intracellular imaging

Talanta. 2025 Mar 1:284:127251. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2024.127251. Epub 2024 Nov 19.

Authors

Yixin Li¹, Yujian Cai², Mingyuan Zhang³, Zhongyong Xu⁴, Yuting Luo⁵, Yi Cai⁶, Zhiqing Xun⁷, Taoyuze Lv⁸, Yalong Wang⁹, Tianyi Qin¹⁰, Bin Liu¹¹, Mingqiang Zhu¹²

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Hainan Province, School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Sanya, Hainan, 572025, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
² State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Hainan Province, School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Sanya, Hainan, 572025, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
³ College of Material Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁴ College of Material Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁵ State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Hainan Province, School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Sanya, Hainan, 572025, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁶ State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Hainan Province, School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Sanya, Hainan, 572025, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁷ Guangzhou Quality Supervision and Testing Institute, 1-2 Zhujiang Rd, Guangzhou, 511447, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁸ Suzhou Institute for Advanced Research, University of Science and Technology of China, Suzhou, 215123, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
⁹ State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Hainan Province, School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Sanya, Hainan, 572025, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹⁰ State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Hainan Province, School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Sanya, Hainan, 572025, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹¹ College of Material Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, 518060, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
¹² State Key Laboratory of Digital Medical Engineering, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Engineering of Hainan Province, School of Biomedical Engineering, Hainan University, Sanya, Hainan, 572025, China. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 39586210
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2024.127251

Abstract

Chlortetracycline (CTC), one of the tetracyclic antibiotics, has been widely employed for the inhibition of bacteria. Due to the potential threat to human health posed by the residual CTC, the development of ratiometric fluorescent probes that can achieve accurate measurement and in-situ imaging is urgently needed but remains challenged. Here, a bovine serum albumin (BSA)-involved host-guest system was designed as the novel ratiometric probe (C3@BSA) for CTC based on the indicator-displacement assay principle. Significantly, the fluorescence difference between the CTC@BSA complex and other tetracyclic@BSA complexes ensured high selectivity of this probe. The indicator (C3) was rationally derived from a simple chalcone dye with weak binding affinity to BSA (1.7 × 10⁴ M^-1) compared with CTC (2.2 × 10⁴ M^-1). The sensing process can finish in 10 s with sensitive response (detection limit: 0.23 μM) and anti-interference capacities over common ions and amino acids. On this basis, the probe was successfully used to detect CTC in HeLa cells and B16 cells, where the distributions of CTC were displayed under a dual-channel imaging mode for the first time. Our research provided a novel ratiometric probe for CTC and an effective strategy for designing ratiometric fluorescent indicator-displacement assays.

Keywords: Chlortetracycline; Fluorescence imaging; Indicator-displacement assay; Ratiometric probe.

MeSH terms

Animals
Anti-Bacterial Agents / analysis
Anti-Bacterial Agents / chemistry
Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
Cattle
Chlortetracycline* / analysis
Chlortetracycline* / chemistry
Fluorescent Dyes* / chemistry
HeLa Cells
Humans
Limit of Detection
Mice
Optical Imaging / methods
Serum Albumin, Bovine* / chemistry
Spectrometry, Fluorescence / methods

Substances

Chlortetracycline
Fluorescent Dyes
Serum Albumin, Bovine
Anti-Bacterial Agents