Issue 37, 2022

Imaging of hypochlorous acid in mitochondria using an asymmetric near-infrared fluorescent probe with large Stokes shift

Abstract

Small-molecule near-infrared (NIR) imaging facilitates deep tissue penetration, low autofluorescence, non-invasive visualization, and a relatively simple operation. As such it has emerged as a popular technique for tracking biological species and events. However, the small Stokes shift of most NIR dyes often results in a low signal-to-noise ratio and self-quenching due to crosstalk between the excitation and emission spectra. With this research, we developed a NIR-based fluorescent probe WD-HOCl for hypochlorous acid (HOCl) detection using the NIR dye TJ730 as the fluorophore, which exhibits a large Stokes shift of 156 nm, with no crosstalk between the excitation and emission spectra. It contains acyl hydrazide as the responsive group and a pyridinium cation as the mitochondria-targeting group. The fluorescence intensity of WD-HOCl was enhanced by 30.1-fold after reacting with HOCl. Imaging studies performed using BV-2 cells indicated that WD-HOCl could be used for endogenous HOCl detection and imaging in living cells exposed to glucose and oxygen deprivation/reperfusion. Finally, we demonstrated that inhibiting the expression of NOX2 reduced the HOCl levels and the severity of oxidative stress during stroke in a mouse model.

Graphical abstract: Imaging of hypochlorous acid in mitochondria using an asymmetric near-infrared fluorescent probe with large Stokes shift

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
10 Jul 2022
Accepted
22 Aug 2022
First published
08 Sep 2022
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 11140-11149

Imaging of hypochlorous acid in mitochondria using an asymmetric near-infrared fluorescent probe with large Stokes shift

W. Hu, T. Qiang, C. Li, L. Ren, F. Cheng, B. Wang, M. Li, X. Song and T. D. James, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 11140 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC03833A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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