Simultaneous Detection of Human Serum Albumin and Sulfur Dioxide in Living Cells Based on a Catalyzed Michael Addition Reaction

As vital important bioactive species, human serum albumin (HSA) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) are essential molecules in the organisms and act a pivotal part in many biological events. Although studies have shown that SO2-induced HSA radicals can cause oxidative damage, the underlying mechanism of the synergistic effect of HSA and SO2 in various diseases is obscure, mainly because of the lack of powerful tools that can simultaneously detect HSA and SO2 in living systems. In this work, we report a novel single-site, double-sensing fluorescent probe 1 for the simultaneous detection of HSA and SO2. The probe is based on our finding that HSA can catalyze a Michael addition reaction between the probe and SO2, which induces a change in fluorescence. Probe 1 can effectively entered the endoplasmic reticulum and can be used to image exogenously introduced and de novo synthesis of HSA in endoplasmic reticulum. Furthermore, the simultaneous detection of HSA and SO2 was realized for the first time with probe 1. More important, we observed that HSA still retains its activity to catalyze the Michael addition reaction of 1 and SO2 in living cells, which may provide a significant boost in the study of the role of HSA in medicine and pharmacy.