A ratio luminescent europium organometallic gel for in vitro detection of hepatocellular carcinoma marker and cellular imaging

Abstract

Hepatocellular carcinoma is a particularly aggressive form of liver malignancy, representing one of the most formidable threats to human health and a major contributor to cancer-related deaths. Cholyglycine (CG), which plays a pivotal role in lipid metabolism, has garnered attention as a potential biomarker for hepatocellular carcinoma. Nevertheless, the structural resemblance of CG to various bile acids complicates the specific identification of CG. Therefore, the effective monitoring of CG in biological samples is still a challenge to be solved. In this study, a europium-based metal organic gel (Eu-MOG) with dual emission was synthesized and displayed an obvious luminescent color change from red to blue for CG. The synthesized Eu-MOG exhibits excellent selectivity towards CG, and enables the sensitive detection of CG in serum with LOD as 307 ppb. This character of Eu-MOG has also been validated in cell imaging for CG, which make this europium-based probe sufficient for clinical monitoring of CG to diagnosis hepatocellular carcinoma. The results of our experiments, corroborated by theoretical calculations, indicate that the high sensitivity of MOG to CG stems from the intermolecular N–H⋯O interaction between CG and the ligand H2NDC. This interaction facilitates intermolecular charge transfer, which in turn alters the luminescence of the europium-based metal-organic gel (Eu-MOG). This study provides a robust platform for the early diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma and contributes significantly to the evaluation of human hepatobiliary metabolic status.