A chemiluminescent sensor for imaging endogenous hydrogen polysulfides in a living system

Abstract

By constructing 2-(benzoylthio)benzoate and a 2-fluoro-4-nitrobenzoate structure in an adamantylidene–dioxetane system, we designed and synthesized two novel chemiluminescent probes for the detection of H₂S_n from other RSS. Under the same conditions, the maximum luminescence emission intensity of the probe CL-HP2 could reach 150 times that of the probe CL-HP1, and the chemiluminescence signal still existed at low concentrations. Therefore, CL-HP2 was more suitable for H₂S_n detection as a chemiluminescent probe. The probe CL-HP2 exhibited a good linear relationship with Na₂S₄ in a wide range (0.025–10 mM). Interestingly, a good linear relationship (R² = 0.997) was also observed at low concentrations (0–100 μM) with a LOD as low as 0.23 μM. CL-HP2 has been effectively employed to visualize endogenous H₂S_n within living cells. Moreover, it has been applied for live imaging of bacterially infected murine models and the ferroptosis process in tumor-bearing mouse models.