Fluorescence turn-on sensing of protein based on mannose functionalized perylene bisimides and its fluorescence imaging

Abstract A new water-soluble glycocluster based on perylene bisimides PBI-12-Man has been designed and synthesized, and its specific and selective binding property with Concanavalin A (Con A) has been investigated by fluorescence spectroscopy and circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, which showed strong binding affinity for Con A with the binding constant of 8.2×10 5  M −1 for monomeric mannose unit, two orders of magnitude higher than the corresponding monosaccharide ligand. Most interestingly, a fluorescence enhancement of PBI-12-Man was observed upon binding with Con A because of deaggregation of the self-assembly of PBI-12-Man induced by carbohydrate–protein interaction, and the further study of the fluorescence enhancement with macrophage cells showed that PBI-12-Man as a biocompatible agent had fluorescence imaging of the surface mannose receptor of the cells. Such fluorescence turn-on sensing of protein based on carbohydrate–protein interactions would facilitate the development of new protein-specific fluorescent probe for diagnosis and molecular imaging under live cell conditions.