Cyanine-based NIR fluorescent probe for monitoring H2S and imaging in living cells and in vivo

Abstract

As a critical gaseous signaling molecule, H₂S is involved in various biological processes. To deeper study the physiological and pathological roles of H₂S, convenient and efficient detection techniques for endogenous H₂S in vivo are still in urgent demand. Herein, we reported a new turn-on Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence probe NIR-H₂S based on thiolysis reactions for detection of H₂S. The probe possessed many excellent properties including high sensitivity and selectivity, good cell-membrane permeability, and low cytotoxicity. In vitro, NIR-H₂S showed a 58-fold fluorescence enhancement when reacted with H₂S in a buffer and displayed a good linear relationship (r = 0.9925) in a rather wide concentration range of H₂S (0-500 μM). Furthermore, NIR-H₂S was successfully employed in monitoring endogenous H₂S induced by D-Cys in living cancer cells and mice. These results indicated that NIR-H₂S had great potentiality in detecting cellular H₂S in living animals and being applied to cancer diagnosis.

Keywords: Cancer cell; Fluorescent probe; H(2)S; NIR.