Design and synthesis of fluorescent probes specific for pantetheinase and their application in bioimaging

Pantetheinase (Vanin-1), an extracellular enzyme that induces the hydrolysis of pantetheine to pantothenic acid (coenzyme A precursor) and cysteamine, is aberrantly expressed in numerous diseases such as pancreatic cancer, type I diabetes, and renal injury. It is crucial to create optical imaging probes to detect Vanin-1 to understand better the roles that individual enzymes play in complex illnesses. Here, the fluorescent moiety of a dicyanomethylenedihydrofuran (TCF) derivative with pantothenic acid as the recognition moiety was used to create the red-emitting fluorescent probe FNJ-PA, which recognizes specifically Vanin-1. The probe FNJ-PA is not only simple to prepare, but also has good sensing properties for Vanin-1, which include high selectivity, high sensitivity, and a large Stokes shift (98 nm). The probe has also been successfully employed for intracellular and mouse intra-tumor Vanin-1 fluorescence imaging, and it has the added benefits of great biosafety and biocompatibility. This means that it can be used as a fluorescence detection tool for Vanin-1 in organisms.