Development of phthalocyanine-based fluorescence probes for detecting ascorbic acid

Abstract

Ascorbic acid （Vitamin C） has been tested in the clinic against various forms of cancers, with some success. However, in vivo tracing of intravenously injected ascorbic acid has not been achieved. We have developed phthalocyaninatosilicon （SiPc） covalently linked to two tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxyl （TEMPO） radicals as fluorescence probes for detecting ascorbic acid. These SiPc-based fluorescence probes were encapsulated into liposome or dimeric bovine serum albumin （BSA） in order to apply them to biological systems. Based on these encapsulations, we successfully imaged ascorbic acid administered to cancer cells or mice, for the first time. These results provide opportunities to advance the use of ascorbic acid as cancer therapy.