A novel light-harvesting ZIF-9-TCPP as a promising FRET-based ratiometric fluorescence probe for sperm mobility

Yi-Xuan Li; Yu-Xuan Dai; Ju-Zheng Wang; Jérome Chauvin; Xue-Ji Zhang; Serge Cosnier; Robert S Marks; Dan Shan

doi:10.1039/d4an01305k

A novel light-harvesting ZIF-9-TCPP as a promising FRET-based ratiometric fluorescence probe for sperm mobility

Analyst. 2024 Nov 21. doi: 10.1039/d4an01305k. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yi-Xuan Li^{1

2}, Yu-Xuan Dai^{1

2}, Ju-Zheng Wang¹, Jérome Chauvin³, Xue-Ji Zhang⁴, Serge Cosnier^{3

5

6}, Robert S Marks⁷, Dan Shan¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental and Biological Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, P R China.
² College of Chemical and Material Engineering, Quzhou University, Quzhou, Zhejiang 324000, P R China.
³ University of Grenoble Alpes-CNRS, DCM UMR 5250, F-38000 Grenoble, France.
⁴ School of Biomedical Engineering, Health Science Centre, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, P R China.
⁵ Centre for Organic and Nanohybrid Electronics, Silesian University of Technology, Konarskiego 22B, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.
⁶ Department of Physical Chemistry and Technology of Polymers, Silesian University of Technology, M. Strzody 9, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland.
⁷ Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, 90089, Israel.

PMID: 39569731
DOI: 10.1039/d4an01305k

Abstract

The concentration of zinc ions in semen is significantly correlated with sperm viability and male fertility. In this work, a reliable ratiometric fluorescence probe (ZIF-9-TCPP) based on the efficient Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) process between two luminophores, benzimidazole (BIM) and meso-tetra (4-carboxyphenyl) porphyrin (TCPP) for Zn²⁺ detection has been constructed, where the emissions of BIM and TCPP are used as reference and detection signals. The proximity of BIM and TCPP in one framework (ZIF-9-TCPP) and the overlapped spectra between BIM and TCPP afford the attainment of a highly efficient FRET (around 90% efficiency). Efficient FRET improves the fluorescence intensity of porphyrin to enhance the sensitivity of detection. The unique spectral shift resulting from Zn²⁺ binding to the porphyrin ring ensures the selectivity of detection. In addition, the response mechanism of the proposed ratiometric probes to Zn²⁺ has been investigated. This work provides a convenient way to design an efficient FRET system and a promising method for sperm mobility detection.