Aggregation-induced fluorescence probe for hypochlorite imaging in mitochondria of living cells and zebrafish

Abstract

Hypochlorite is an important active oxygen species formed in living organisms, and rapid and highly sensitive detection of trace hypochlorite is of great significance for understanding the mechanism of diseases caused by abnormal hypochlorite concentrations at an early stage. Although aggregation-induced emission (AIE) probes are highly important for analyte de-tection in living organisms, there is a lack of AIE probes for hypochlorite detection. In this study, two AIE probes based on benzothiazole derivatives (BTD-1 and BTD-2) were designed and synthesized. Both probes exhibited good AIE charac-teristics and allowed different visual detection for hypochlorite. Additionally, the two probes could be used to detect endogenous hypochlorite in mitochondria and were successfully applied for in vivo hypochlorite imaging in zebrafish.