Two ratiometric fluorescent probes for hypochlorous acid detection and imaging in living cells

Abstract

Hypochlorous acid plays a very important role in living cells, because it can resist microorganism attack and has a lethal effect on pathogens. The unnormal generation of ClO^- can cause tissue damage and corresponding diseases. Detection of ClO^- is very necessary in biological systems. In this article, we respectively hybridized the two different water-soluble coumarin (7-hydroxycoumarin and 7-diethylaminocoumarin) fluorophores with a longer-wavelength emissive rhodamine fluorophore to construct an intergrant, and then isothiocyanate was modified with the intergrant to recognized ClO^-. The two ratiometric fluorescent probes RHClO-1 and RHClO-2 were developed for ClO^- detecting with high selectivity and sensitivity. Especially, the probe RHClO-2 has lower detection limit (42 nM) for ClO^- in 5 s. What's more, the probe RHClO-2 was successfully used in monitoring endogenous ClO^- in living cells.

Keywords: Fluorescent probe; Hypochlorite; Imaging; Living cells; Ratiometric.