The selective quantification of iron by hexadentate fluorescent probes Original Research Article

The synthesis of four hexadentate fluorescent probes is described, where the fluorescent moiety is based on either coumarin or fluorescein and the chelating moiety is based on either 3-hydroxypyridin-4-one or 3-hydroxypyran-4-one. The fluorescence is quenched when the probe chelating moieties bind iron. The probes were found to be selective for iron over other metals such as Cu, Zn, Ni, Mn and Co. The effect of Cu on fluorescence quenching can be eliminated in the presence of N,N,N’,N’-tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl)-ethylenediamine. Competition studies demonstrate that the exchange of iron between pyridinone-based probes and apotransferrin is very slow. The ability to scavenge iron from oligomeric iron(III) citrate complexes demonstrate that the pyridinone probes scavenges iron faster than deferiprone and desferrioxamine. The fluorescence intensity of the fluorescein-based probe is quantitatively related to the iron concentration with the limit of detection being 10−8 M.