Highly Chemoselective Self-Calibrated Fluorescent Probe Monitors Glutathione Dynamics in Nucleolus in Live Cells

The redox-regulator glutathione (GSH) maintains a specific redox potential to sustain routine cellular activity from oxidative damage. In the early stage of the cell cycle process, the glutathione levels increase in the nuclei for protecting the DNA replication process from reactive oxygen species (ROS). In the first attempt, we developed a new ratiometric fluorescent probe that has provided information about glutathione levels in the nuclei. The UV–vis. absorption of probe GScp has shown a hypsochromic shift from 410 to 350 nm in the presence of GSH. In fluorescence titration, we observed that fluorescence emission of the GScp switched from 510 to 460 nm in the presence of GSH. The self-calibrated probe GScp has shown nearly optimal reversibility in GSH redox dynamics with the dissociation constant 2.47 mM. The probe is ideal for GSH tracking in live cells, as its toxicity has within the safe zone. The probe GScp has validated GSH levels in nucleoli by providing fluorescence images in blue-channel. This finding inspires us to use for validation of GSH dynamics in the nucleoli in the cell cycle process.