Discrimination of homocysteine, cysteine and glutathione using an aggregation-induced-emission-active hemicyanine dye

Elevated levels of homocysteine (Hcy) in blood are indicative of many high risk cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Thus, development of highly efficient and selective dyes for monitoring Hcy levels has attracted much attention. This paper reports the utilization of TPE-Cy, an aggregation-induced-emission active hemicyanine dye, as a probe for the detection of Hcy. More interestingly, this dye shows high selectivity to Hcy over cysteine, glutathione and other amino acids in weakly basic buffer solution.