A reversible fluorescent probe for directly monitoring protein-small molecules interaction utilizing vibration-induced emission

The interactions between proteins and small molecules play an important role in the regulation of various cellular processes and modern drug discovery. Herein, we have developed a novel strategy for real-time monitoring the protein-ligand interaction based on vibration-induced emission (VIE) mechanism. These results demonstrated that the probe DPAC-DB could directly visualize the binding process in biotin-avidin system, which was undisturbed to other environmental stimuli, such as pH, interference species and temperature. Furthermore, the unique VIE effect caused by dramatic and reversible intramolecular vibrations enabled our strategy possible to build up the bio-logic gate. This method to efficiently control the emission of VIE-based probe through the reversible noncovalent protein-small molecules interactions opens new avenues for the development of potent protein pharmaceuticals and small molecule drugs.