A golgi-targeting and polarity-specific fluorescent probe for the diagnosis of cancer and fatty liver in living cells and tissues

Elucidating the intrinsic relationship between diseases and Golgi apparatus polarity remains a great challenge owing to the lack of the Golgi-specific fluorescent probe for polarity. Until now, the visualization of abnormal Golgi apparatus polarity in clinical cancer patient samples has not been achieved. To meet this urgent challenge, we facilely synthesized a robust Golgi-targeting and polarity-specific fluorescent probe (GCSP), which consists of an electron-acceptor solvatochromic coumarin 343 and an electron-donor Golgi-targeting group phenylsulfonamide. Owing to the typical D-pi-A molecular configuration with unique intramolecular charge transfer effect, GCSP exhibits high sensitivity to polarity change in different solvents. Moreover, we revealed that GCSP possessed a satisfactory ability to sensitively monitor Golgi apparatus polarity changes in living cells. Using GCSP, we have successfully shown that Golgi apparatus polarity may serve as an ubiquitous marker for cancer and fatty liver detection. Surprisingly, the visualization of Golgi polarity has been achieved not only at the cellular levels, but also in clinical tissue samples from cancer patients, thus holding great potential in the clinical diagnosis of human cancer. All these features render GCSP an effective tool for the accurate diagnosis of Golgi apparatus related diseases.