Strategy on screening fluorescent guanine analogues to specifically detect 5-carboxylcytosine adduct

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ae12d3

Abstract The adduct 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC), one of the products involved in demethylation pathway, has the potential to serve as a target for specifically deciphering proteins that regulate gene expression and chromatin organization. The fluorescence detection with its ultra-high sensitivity can break through the limitations of traditional detection methods and achieve single molecule detection of 5caC. In this work, the guanine analogue G$^{\rm r3}$ with large $\pi$-conjugation and large Stokes shift (89.25 nm) is selected as the fluorescence probe to specifically recognize and monitor 5caC. Because of its bright fluorescence when paired with C and a complete fluorescence quenching when paired with 5caC, this on-off switching feature of G$^{\rm r3}$ stems from excited-state intermolecular charge transfer. Furthermore, it is found that after linking with deoxyribose, this discriminative function remains unchanged. This strategy could contribute to detecting the presence of 5caC in the genetic material, and thus prevent diseases associated with this epigenetic modification.

Keywords: density functional theory fluorescent probe photochemistry guanine analogues 5-carboxylcytosine (5caC)

Received: 24 July 2025
Revised: 24 September 2025
Accepted manuscript online: 14 October 2025

PACS:	71.15.Mb	(Density functional theory, local density approximation, gradient and other corrections)
	33.50.-j	(Fluorescence and phosphorescence; radiationless transitions, quenching (intersystem crossing, internal conversion))
	82.50.-m	(Photochemistry)

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 12274265 and 11804195) and Partial support by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (Grant No. ZR2022MA006).

Corresponding Authors: Qingtian Meng
E-mail: qtmeng@sdnu.edu.cn

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Mingming Zhang(张明明), Zhizheng Cao(曹智正), Xixi Cui(崔习习), Xiaolin Chen(陈晓琳), Changzhe Zhang(张常哲), and Qingtian Meng(孟庆田) Strategy on screening fluorescent guanine analogues to specifically detect 5-carboxylcytosine adduct 2026 Chin. Phys. B 35 057109

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Strategy on screening fluorescent guanine analogues to specifically detect 5-carboxylcytosine adduct

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