Specific recognition, intracellular assay and detoxification of fluorescent curcumin derivative for copper ions

Highlights: • A difluoroboron curcumin derivative (DF-Cur) was rationally constructed. • DF-Cur showed highly specific and selective recognition of copper ions. • DF-Cur is capable of fast detection of Cu²⁺ in living cells and zebrafish. • DF-Cur is implicated in treatment of Wilson's disease and Cu²⁺-poisoning. • DF-Cur might be a therapeutic agent for Cu²⁺-accumulation related diseases. Recognition and excretion of metal ions play an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of various diseases and poisoning. Although copper (Cu) is a cofactor of many key enzymes in the human body, its accumulation caused by genetic ATP7B mutation or environmental pollution can lead to hepatotoxicity, renal failure, Wilson's disease, inflammation, and even Parkinson's disease (PD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Therefore, in this work, a difluoroboron curcumin derivative (DF-Cur) was used for the specific recognition of copper ions (Cu²⁺). DF-Cur could be further used to as a rapid diagnostic agent for the copper detection in cells and zebrafish at the nanomolar level. DF-Cur could significantly reduce the toxic damage caused by high Cu²⁺ dose. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analysis indicated that DF-Cur could promote the excretion of copper ions in the urine and bile and reduce the accumulation of copper ions in vivo. In addition, DF-Cur could selectively detect cholesterol in the blood and adipose tissue in vivo by fluorescent staining. These results demonstrated that this molecule might represent a new and promising diagnostic and therapeutic agent to combat diseases related to copper ions accumulation.