ESIPT silent and mitochondrial-targeted rapid response for SO2 regulated by pyridinium and its real-time detection in living cells

Abstract

ESIPT has been widely used in fluorescence recognition because of its advantages such as large Stokes shift. (2-(2′-Hydroxyphenyl) benzothiazole) was often used to construct ESPIPT process. In our study, we conjugated it with benzopyridine to construct a near-infrared ESIPT and used it for mitochondrial targeted so₂ detection. It is found that the ESIPT is silenced due to the electron absorption N⁺; on the contrary, the response speed of SO₂ is improved, and the high selectivity of SO₂ detection is realized. The probe has also been applied to intracellular and exogenous real-time imaging successfully. These results are helpful to further study the physiological and pathological functions of sulfur dioxide in mitochondria.