Copper is an essential trace element in living organisms with its levels and localisation being carefully managed by the cellular machinery. However, if misregulated, deficiency or excess of copper ions can lead to several diseases. Therefore, it is important to have reliable methods to detect, monitor and visualise this metal in cells. Herein we report a new optical probe based on BODIPY, which shows a switch-on in its fluorescence intensity upon binding to copper(I), but not in the presence of high concentration of other physiologically relevant metal ions. More interestingly, binding to copper(I) leads to significant changes in the fluorescence lifetime of the new probe, which can be used to visualize copper(I) pools in lysosomes of live cells via fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM).

中文翻译：

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通过荧光寿命成像显微镜选择性检测活细胞中的 Cu+ 离子

铜是生物体中必需的微量元素，其水平和定位由细胞机器精心管理。然而，如果调节不当，铜离子缺乏或过量会导致多种疾病。因此，拥有可靠的方法来检测、监测和可视化细胞中的这种金属非常重要。在此，我们报告了一种基于 BODIPY 的新型光学探针，该探针在与铜 (I) 结合后显示出荧光强度的开启，但在高浓度的其他生理相关金属离子存在的情况下则不会开启。更有趣的是，与铜（I）的结合导致新探针的荧光寿命发生显着变化，该探针可用于通过荧光寿命成像显微镜（FLIM）可视化活细胞溶酶体中的铜（I）库。