A novel water-soluble AIE-based fluorescence probe with red emission for the sensitive detection of heparin in aqueous solution and human serum samples

Heparin is widely used to anticoagulation treatment in clinic, while the overdoses of heparin can cause potentially catastrophic complications. Thus, the selective and sensitive detection of heparin is of great importance. Herein, a novel water-soluble ALE-based fluorescent probe (TIBI) with red emission (650 nm) has been rationally developed to detect heparin by the electrostatic-interaction and ion replacing strategy. TIBI exhibited excellent selectivity and low detection limit (0.08 mu M) for detection of heparin. Moreover, TIBI was successfully applied to detect heparin in complicated serum samples with satisfactory results. This study holds great promise for real time monitoring heparin in clinical application. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.