Issue 2, 2016

A highly selective near-infrared fluorescent probe for imaging H2Se in living cells and in vivo

Abstract

Hydrogen selenide (H2Se), a highly reactive Se species, is an important selenium metabolism intermediate involved in many physiological and pathological processes. This compound is of scientific interest with regard to the real-time monitoring of H2Se in living cells and in vivo to understand the anti-cancer mechanism of selenium. However, monitoring H2Se in living cells is still challenging due to the lack of straight forward, highly selective and rapid methods. Here, we developed a novel small-molecule fluorescent probe, NIR-H2Se, for imaging endogenous H2Se. NIR-H2Se exhibited high selectivity toward H2Se over selenocysteine (Sec), H2S and small molecule thiols and was successfully used to image the H2Se content in HepG2 cells during Na2SeO3-induced apoptosis. Increased H2Se content and reduced ROS levels were observed under hypoxic conditions compared to normoxic conditions, which indicated that the cell apoptosis induced by Na2SeO3 under a hypoxic environment is via a non-oxidative stress mechanism. Thus, this probe should serve as a powerful tool for exploring the physiological function of H2Se and Se anticancer mechanisms in a variety of physiological and pathological contexts.

Graphical abstract: A highly selective near-infrared fluorescent probe for imaging H2Se in living cells and in vivo

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
15 Sep 2015
Accepted
28 Oct 2015
First published
28 Oct 2015
This article is Open Access

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

Chem. Sci., 2016,7, 1051-1056

A highly selective near-infrared fluorescent probe for imaging H2Se in living cells and in vivo

F. Kong, L. Ge, X. Pan, K. Xu, X. Liu and B. Tang, Chem. Sci., 2016, 7, 1051 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC03471J

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