A new ratiometric fluorescent probe for sensing lysosomal HOCl based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer strategy

Recent progress and outlooks in rhodamine-based fluorescent probes for detection and imaging of reactive oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur species

Reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and reactive sulfur species (RSS) serve as vital mediators essential for preserving intracellular redox homeostasis within the human body, thereby possessing significant implications across physiological and pathological domains. Nevertheless, deviations from normal levels of ROS, RNS, and RSS disturb redox homeostasis, leading to detrimental consequences that compromise bodily integrity. This disruption is closely linked to the onset of various human diseases, thereby posing a substantial threat to human health and survival. Small-molecule fluorescent probes exhibit considerable potential as analytical instruments for the monitoring of ROS, RNS, and RSS due to their exceptional sensitivity and selectivity, operational simplicity, non-invasiveness, localization capabilities, and ability to facilitate in situ optical signal generation for real-time dynamic analyte monitoring. Due to their distinctive transition from their spirocyclic form (non-fluorescent) to their ring-opened form (fluorescent), along with their exceptional light stability, broad wavelength range, high fluorescence quantum yield, and high extinction coefficient, rhodamine fluorophores have been extensively employed in the development of fluorescent probes. This review primarily concentrates on the investigation of fluorescent probes utilizing rhodamine dyes for ROS, RNS, and RSS detection from the perspective of different response groups since 2016. The scope of this review encompasses the design of probe structures, elucidation of response mechanisms, and exploration of biological applications.

Lysosome-targeted fluorescent probes: Design mechanism and biological applications

As an integral organelle in the eukaryote, the lysosome is the degradation center and metabolic signal center in living cells, and partakes in significant physiological processes such as autophagy, cell death and cellular senescence. Fluorescent probe has become a favorite tool for studying organelles and their chemical microenvironments because of its high specificity and non-destructive merits. Over recent years, it has been reported that increasingly new lysosome-targeted probes play a major role in the diagnosis and monitor of diseases, in particular cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. In order to deepen the relevant research on lysosome, it is challenging and inevitability to design novel lysosomal targeting probes. This review first introduces the concepts of lysosome and its closely related biological activities, and then introduces the fluorescent probes for lysosome in detail according to different detection targets, including targeting mechanism, biological imaging, and application in diseases. Finally, we summarize the specific challenges and discuss the future development direction facing the current lysosome-targeted fluorescent probes. We hope that this review can help biologists grasp the application of fluorescent probes and broaden the research ideas of researchers targeting fluorescent probes so as to design more accurate and functional probes for application in diseases.

A New and Fast-Response Fluorescent Probe for Monitoring Hypochlorous Acid Derived from Myeloperoxidase

Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) has been implicated in numerous pathologies associated with an inflammatory component, but its selective and sensitive detection in biological settings remains a challenge. In this report, imaging of HOCl was realized with a thiomorpholine-based probe as derivative of nitrobenzothiadiazole (NBD-S-TM). The fluorescence is based on photoinduced electron transfer by using nitrobenzothiadiazole core as a donor and thiomorpholine substituent as an acceptor. NBD-S-TM showed high sensitivity and a fast response to HOCl k = (2.6 ± 0.2) × 107 M-1s-1 with a 1:1 stoichiometry. The detection limit for HOCl was determined to be 60 nM. Furthermore, the desirable features of NBD-S-TM for the detection of HOCl in aqueous solutions, such as its reliability at physiological pH, rapid fluorescence response, and biocompatibility, enabled its application in the detection of HOCl in myeloperoxidase enzymatic system. Moreover, NBD-S-TM exhibited excellent selectivity and sensitivity for HOCl over other biologically relevant species, such as hydrogen peroxide and peroxynitrite. The fluorescent S-oxidized product (NBD-S-TSO) is only formed in the presence of HOCl. Probing with NBD-S-TM may be helpful to further the development of high throughput screening assays to monitor the activity of myeloperoxidase.

A fluorescent probe based on phenothiazine for detection of ClO− with naked-eye color change properties

Hypochlorite (ClO^-) plays a key role in life systems and it is necessary to develop an effective detection method. In view of the significant advantages of the fluorescent probe, we have synthesized a naked-eye recognition fluorescent probe NNCF for the detection of ClO^- based on phenothiazine and naphthalimide. The probe NNCF is sensitive (LOD = 9.5 nM) and fast for ClO^- (within 30 s), and its Stokes shift is as large as 161 nm. In addition, the probe NNCF has been successfully used for imaging detection of exogenous ClO^- in MCF-7 cells with low toxicity.

A novel pyrene-based fluorescent probe for Al3+ detection

Based on the classical Schiff base reaction, fluorescent probe dimethyl 5-((pyren-1-ylmethylene)amino)isophthalate (PAI) is designed and synthesized through introducing Schiff base structure to pyrene unit for structural modification. The structure of the synthesized probe PAI is determined and characterized by FT-IR, ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR and HRMS. PAI is a type of "turn-on" probe which can specifically recognize Al³⁺ ion with high selectivity. The limit of detection is calculated to be 3.07 × 10^-8 M, which proves the probe's high sensitivity and is lower than that of many efficient reported probes. The probe PAI is intrinsically non-fluorescent due to the photoinduced electron transfer (PET) process. However, the addition of Al³⁺ ion leads to the breakage of the carbon-nitrogen double bond of Schiff base in PAI resulting in the product without PET property, which shows a typical localized state with enhanced fluorescence and blue color. In addition, PAI can recognize Al³⁺ ion through test papers, which is in favor of the future research regarding to Al³⁺ ion sensing.

A novel near-infrared ratiometric fluorescent probe targeting lysosomes for imaging HOCl in vitro and in vivo

Hypochlorous acid (HOCl), as an important biological reactive oxygen species (ROS), plays an important role in microbial immune defense and inflammatory response. Abnormal levels of HOCl in lysosomes can cause lysosomal membrane rupture and release of various hydrolases, leading to a variety of diseases, including cancer. In order to better monitor the level of HOCl in lysosomes, phenothiazine was chosen as fluorophore to construct a NIR fluorescent probe PMM with intramolecular change transfer process (ICT). PMM is a colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescent probe, which has high sensitivity with a low detection limit (20 nM), high selectivity and anti-interference. PMM has good stability in the weakly acidic environment of pH 4.0-5.5. PPM has good localization ability for lysosomes and has been successfully used for fluorescence imaging of exogenous and endogenous HOCl in HepG2 cells. Moreover, nude mouse imaging also demonstrated that PMM could be used to detect HOCl in vivo.

Fluorescent Probes Design Strategies for Imaging Mitochondria and Lysosomes

Modern cellular biology faces several major obstacles, such as the determination of the concentration of active sites corresponding to chemical substances. In recent years, the popular small-molecule fluorescent probes have completely changed the understanding of cellular biology through their high sensitivity toward specific substances in various organisms. Mitochondria and lysosomes are significant organelles in various organisms, and their interaction is closely related to the development of various diseases. The investigation of their structure and function has gathered tremendous attention from biologists. The advanced nanoscopic technologies have replaced the diffraction-limited conventional imaging techniques and have been developed to explore the unknown aspects of mitochondria and lysosomes with a sub-diffraction resolution. Recent progress in this field has yielded several excellent mitochondria- and lysosome-targeted fluorescent probes, some of which have demonstrated significant biological applications. Herein, we review studies that have been carried out to date and suggest future research directions that will harness the considerable potential of mitochondria- and lysosome-targeted fluorescent probes.

The Development of a 4-aminonaphthalimide-based Highly Selective Fluorescent Probe for Rapid Detection of HOCl

Recently, more and more evidence indicated that intracellular HOCl plays a crucial role in the regulation of inflammation and apoptosis, while excessive HOCl has an impact on human health problems. So, the development of methods for sensitive detection of HOCl is very vital to reveal its various physiological and pathological functions. In this paper, we have described a simple fluorescent probe for selective detection of HOCl, whereas for higher concentrations of other biological important substances, the probe almost does not respond. The experimental results show that the probe can quantitatively determine the range of 0-1 μM HOCl, the detection limit is 0.05 μM. In addition, the probe reacts quickly with HOCl (< 3 s), which is helpful to monitor HOCl in biological system because HOCl is highly reactive and short-lived. The ability of the probe to HOCl enables it to be used to track the HOCl levels in living systems.

Development and Challenge of Fluorescent Probes for Bioimaging Applications: From Visualization to Diagnosis

Fluorescent probes have been used widely in bioimaging, including biological substance detection, cell imaging, in vivo biochemical reaction process tracking, and disease biomarker monitoring, and have gradually occupied an indispensable position. Compared with traditional biological imaging technologies, such as positron emission tomography (PET) and nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the attractive advantages of fluorescent probes, such as real-time imaging, in-depth visualization, and less damage to biological samples, have made them increasingly popular. Among them, ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) fluorescent probes still occupy the mainstream in the field of fluorescent probes due to the advantages of available structure, simple synthesis, strong versatility, and wide application. In recent years, fluorescent probes have become an indispensable tool for bioimaging and have greatly promoted the development of diagnostics. In this review, we focus on the structure, design strategies, advantages, representative probes and latest discoveries in application fields of UV-visible fluorescent probes developed in the past 3-5 years based on several fluorophores. We look forward to future development trends of fluorescent probes from the perspective of bioimaging and diagnostics. This comprehensive review may facilitate the development of more powerful fluorescent sensors for broad and exciting applications in the future.

A phenothiazine coumarin based ratiometric fluorescent probe for real-time detection of lysosomal hypochlorite in living cell and zebra fish

Hypochlorite (ClO^-), a type of reactive oxygen species (ROS), plays an essential role in complex biological systems. Real-time detection of the content and distribution of ClO^- in cells or subcellular organelle is critically essential. In this paper, a lysosomal-targeted fluorescent probe, Cou-Lyso, was constructed for real-time detection of ClO^- in a ratiometric manner, achieving high sensitivity with a low detection limit (0.58 μM). Upon reaction with ClO^-, this probe was subjected to a significant fluorescence change from red emission (λ_maxem = 610 nm) to green emission (λ_maxem = 535 nm) with the ratio of I_{535 nm}/I_{610 nm} displaying a 76-fold enhancement from 0.04 to 3.03. The confocal imaging experiments for Cou-Lyso showed that this probe could detect ClO^- in living cell and zebra fish. This probe has been successfully applied to stain lysosome and image lysosomal ClO^- based on co-localization imaging experiments.

Theoretical Study of a Two-Photon Fluorescent Probe Based on Nile Red Derivatives with Controllable Fluorescence Wavelength and Water Solubility

Hypochloric acid (HOCl) plays a vital role in the natural defense system, but abnormal levels of it can cause cell damage, accelerated human aging, and various diseases. It is of great significance to develop new probes for detecting HOCl in biosystems nondestructively and noninvasively. The purpose of this work is to explore new chemical modification strategies of two-photon excitation fluorescence (TPEF) probes to improve the poor water solubility and low efficiency in imaging applications. Nil-OH-6 has a two-photon absorption cross-section value as high as 243 GM and attains a good quantum yield of 0.49. In addition, the modification of terminal groups with different azetidine-heterospirocycles or N,N-dialkyl fused amino groups to Nile Red can effectively improve the fluorescence efficiency as well as increase the solubility to some extent. This study provides some strategies to simultaneously improve the fluorescence performance and solubility of these two-photon probes and, hence, reliable guidance and a foundation for the subsequent synthesis of TPEF probes based on Nile Red.

A novel ER-targeted two-photon fluorescent probe for monitoring abnormal concentrations of HClO in diabetic mice

Diabetes is closely related to the presence of excess HClO induced by endoplasmic reticulum stress. Thus, a novel two-photon fluorescent probe was designed and synthesized for the detection of HClO in the endoplasmic reticulum. Significantly, it has been verified that high glucose can indeed induce oxidative stress of the endoplasmic reticulum and produce excessive HClO. Moreover, the probe has also been successfully used in tissue imaging of diabetic mice.

Revealing the redox status in endoplasmic reticulum by a selenium fluorescence probe

As an important organelle, the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) participates in the synthesis and secretion of various proteins, glycogen, lipids and cholesterol in eukaryotic cells. In this work, an endoplasmic reticulum-targeted reversible fluorescent probe (ER-Se) was designed and synthesized. The probe, based on a selenide group, shows high sensitivity and good selectivity toward HClO (LOD = 0.85 μM). In addition, the probe has reversible capability towards HClO/GSH. Most importantly, co-location experiment results indicated that the probe exhibited a great ability to target the endoplasmic reticulum. Furthermore, the probe was successfully applied to detect exogenous and endogenous HClO in ER and monitored the redox status changes during ER stress.

Rapid and selective visualization of mitochondrial hypochlorite by a red region water-soluble fluorescence probe

Hypochlorite (^-OCl) has long been recognized as an effective microbicidal agent in immune system. Herein, we report the design, preparation and spectral characteristics of a ^-OCl fluorescent probe (FI-Mito). The probe exhibited remarkable fluorescence turn-on signal in the red region upon ^-OCl titration with the detection limit as low as 0.9 nM. FI-Mito displayed specific response for ^-OCl in completely aqueous solution. Meanwhile, the introduction of quaternized pyridine realized mitochondria-targeting ability. FI-Mito was further applied to monitor the generation of endogenous ^-OCl in the mitochondria of macrophage cells and mice. Therefore, it was established that FI-Mito may serve as a useful molecular tool for ^-OCl detection in vivo.

Investigations of drug-induced liver injury by a peroxynitrite activatable two-photon fluorescence probe

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is a prevalent liver disease and the leading cause for acute liver failure (ALF) worldwide. Screening of DILI in patients is central to ensure drug safety and improve therapy efficiency. Mounting evidences revealed that peroxynitrite (ONOO^-) is involved in the DILI process and can be a potential biomarker for DILI. Thus far, there are few two-photon fluorescence probes for ONOO^- that can accomplish this challenging task in DILI liver tissues. Hereby, a peroxynitrite activatable two-photon fluorescence probe BN-PN for the imaging of ONOO^- in mice liver was elaborately constructed. The probe specifically reacted with peroxynitrite to furnish 140-fold fluorescence increase in vitro, which elucidated a high sensitivity for ONOO^-. Thus, subtle changes of ONOO^- levels in live cells can be sensitively imaged with this probe by two-photon microscopy. The probe also denoted the overproduction of ONOO^- in APAP-induced liver injury, and proved that administration with NAC can effectively alleviate DILI and reduce ONOO^- production in mouse liver. Further, the probe demonstrated the rapid rise of ONOO^- level in the liver of DILI mice administrated with alcohol. This work disclosed the rational construction of a two-photon fluorescence probe-based DILI screening method, which would help the estimation of drug safety and new drug development.

Design, synthesis and application of a dual-functional fluorescent probe for reactive oxygen species and viscosity

A fluorescence probe based on cyanine fluorophore was designed and synthesized in this work, which can be used to determine viscosity and reactive oxygen species (e.g., OCl^-, ONOO^-) at different wavelengths. Under a low viscosity medium, the fluorescence quantum yield of the probe is very low; however, with the increase of the medium viscosity, the probe's emission at 571 nm is enhanced by nearly 25-fold due to the inhibition of intramolecular rotations. On the other hand, the probe shows a rapid and linear fluorescence response at 710 nm to OCl^- or ONOO^- within 1 min. The different spectral response regions of the probe permit the selective detection of both viscosity and reactive oxygen species. Furthermore, the probe is demonstrated to be cell permeable and capable of detecting the viscosity and the total amount of OCl^-/ONOO^- in living cells with the help of confocal microscope fluorescence imaging.

Sensitive and rapid detection of Cr3+ in live cells by a red turn-on fluorescent probe

A new probe RB-CR for the detection of Cr³⁺ was constructed based on the conjugation between rhodamine B and phenylthiourea. The Cr³⁺ could trigger opening of the rhodamine spirolactam of RB-CR upon complexation selectively, sensitively and rapidly, resulting in a pronounced enhancement of absorption and fluorescence signal. Further fluorescence imaging study has suggested that RB-CR could be applied as a probe for Cr³⁺ surveillance in living HepG2 cells with low cytotoxicity, which provide us the feasibility of exploring the Cr³⁺ recognition process by the turn-on fluorescence response.

Malononitrile as the 'double-edged sword' of passivation-activation regulating two ICT to highly sensitive and accurate ratiometric fluorescent detection for hypochlorous acid in biological system

Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) as one of the most important reactive oxygen species in the organism, its role is more and more recognized. In fact, in recent years, various HOCl fluorescent probes have been developed unprecedentively based on various mechanisms. However, because most of the mechanisms are based on the oxidation characteristics of HOCl, the excellent detection performance of probes depends on the activation ability of some functional groups to reaction sites. The C[bond, double bond]C bond in the probe is often oxidized by HOCl to realize HOCl detection. However, due to the break of conjugated structure, the probe often present as a quenchable or turning on fluorescence emission. In this work, malononitrile was introduced as the "double-edged sword" of passivation-activation when in HOCl fluorescent probe was designed. Passivation-activation regulated two ICT (Intermolecular Charge Transfer, ICT) processes to ratiometric fluorescent detection for HOCl. Highly sensitive and accurate detection realized efficient application in biological imaging.

A highly sensitive endoplasmic reticulum-targeting fluorescent probe for the imaging of endogenous H2S in live cells

Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) as an important signaling biomolecule participates in a series of complex physiological and pathological processes. In situ and rapid detection of H₂S levels in endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is of great importance for the in-depth study of its virtual functional roles. However, the ER-targeting fluorescent probe for the detection of H₂S in live cells is still quite rare. Herein, a new ER-targeting fluorescent probe (FER-H₂S) for detecting H₂S in live cells was characterized in the present study. This probe FER-H₂S was built from the hybridization of three parts, including fluorescein-based skeleton, p-toluenesulfonamide as ER-specific group, and 2,4-nitrobenzene sulfonate as a response site for H₂S. The response mechanism of the probe FER-H₂S to H₂S is on the basis of the ring-opening and ring-closing processes in fluorescein moiety. Moreover, the probe FER-H₂S was successfully used for the imaging of exogenous and endogenous H₂S in ER of live cells.

Gold nanoclusters/graphene quantum dots complex-based dual-emitting ratiometric fluorescence probe for the determination of glucose

Herein, we report the design of a single-excitation/double-emission ratiometric fluorescence nanosensor for the determination of glucose. The sensing system combines glucose oxidation catalyzed by glucose oxidase, Fenton chemistry, Fe³⁺-sensitive fluorescent gold nanoclusters (AuNCs), and Fe³⁺-inert fluorescent graphene quantum dots (GQDs). We used orange-fluorescent AuNCs co-modified with bovine serum albumin and 3-mercaptopropionic acid as the indicator probe, and GQDs with the same excitation wavelength as the BSA/MPA-AuNCs, but with different emission wavelength, as the reference probe. The fluorescence intensity-ratio between 420 nm and 575 nm (F₄₂₀/F₅₇₅) was used to quantitatively determine glucose with a low detection limit of 0.18 μM, and the nanosensor was successfully used to detect glucose in human serum. This ratiometric fluorescence sensing system, based on AuNCs and GQDs, ensures sensitive and convenient determination of glucose, and has broad application prospects for biomedical-analysis applications.

Sensitive and selective fluorescent probe for hypochlorite in 100% aqueous solution and its application for lysosome-targetable cell imaging

A morpholine-functionalized pyrrole-cyanine probe was synthesized via a simple condensation reaction in high yield. This probe exhibits high selectivity toward ClO^- on fluorescence and UV-vis spectra in neat aqueous solution. The strong green emission of the probe solution was quenched and the yellow color faded immediately upon the addition of ClO^-. The detection limit of the probe for ClO^- was 0.165 μM. The mechanism of hypochlorite-induced CC breakage was supposed on the basis of EIS-MS, NMR, and density functional theory (DFT) calculation. Finally, the probe was utilized to image ClO^- in lysosomes of living cells.