Detection of Urinary Albumin Using a “Turn-on” Fluorescent Probe with Aggregation-Induced Emission Characteristics

Abstract

Human serum albumin (HSA) is a broadly used biomarker for the diagnosis of various diseases such as chronic kidney disease. Here, a fluorescent probe TC426 with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics is reported as a sensitive and specific probe for HSA. This probe is non-emissive in aqueous solution, meanwhile it shows bright fluorescence upon interacting with HSA, which makes it applicable in detecting HSA with a high signal to noise ratio. Besides, the fluorescence of TC426 exhibits a high linear correlation with the concentration of albumin in the range of microalbumin (20–200 mg/L), which has a significant importance for the early diagnosis of glomerulus related diseases. Co..