A spiropyran functionalized fluorescent probe for mitochondria targeting and imaging of endogenous hydrogen sulfide in living cells

Analyst. 2021 Jan 7;145(24):8016-8021. doi: 10.1039/d0an01298j.

Abstract

A turn-on spiropyran functionalized fluorescein derivative (FMC) is developed for targeting HS- in mitochondria. FMC exhibits very weak fluorescence at 525 nm under the excitation of 470 nm in aqueous solution due to its colorless spiropyran form; upon addition of HS-, a strong fluorescence enhancement by 6.4-fold is observed with spirocycle-opened merocyanine form and rapid trapping kinetics for HS-. FMC has good biocompatibility and high selectivity towards HS- with a detection limit of 88.2 nM and is very sensitive among the reported H2S fluorescent probes. Moreover, the significant colocalization of FMC with Mito Tracker® Deep Red FM in human laryngeal epidermoid carcinoma (HEp-2) cells and the Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.87 together demonstrate that FMC can target and image the endogenous H2S in the mitochondria of living cells.

MeSH terms

  • Benzopyrans
  • Fluorescent Dyes*
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Hydrogen Sulfide*
  • Indoles
  • Mitochondria
  • Nitro Compounds / toxicity
  • Optical Imaging

Substances

  • Benzopyrans
  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Indoles
  • Nitro Compounds
  • spiropyran
  • Hydrogen Sulfide