Zinc is one of the most abundant elements in the human body, which is known to play an important role in several diseases. Probing the zinc levels in the cellular environment, therefore, acquires great importance. Existence in +2-oxidation state with d10 electronic configuration inhibits direct spectroscopic detection of zinc. Fluorescence spectroscopy is frequently employed to overcome this limitation, where interaction between a suitable probe and zinc is generally used to elicit a selective fluorescence response. Given the sensitivity of the fluorescence technique, it can be used to probe zinc even in a cellular milieu. In this work, we have developed a selective zinc probe based on an indole core and explored its potential in MCF7 cells. The probe showed high selectivity towards zinc even in the presence of known interfering ions like cadmium. We could detect endogenous lysosomal zinc during inflammation, H2O2-induced apoptosis and hyperglycemia.

Probing lysosomal zinc during various cellular events via an indole-based probe

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