A highly selective turn-on fluorescent probe based on semi-cyanine for the detection of nitroreductase and hypoxic tumor cell imaging†
Abstract
Based on a semi-cyanine fluorophore, a selective turn-on fluorescent probe semi-CyHP for the detection of nitroreductase (NTR) and hypoxia was designed and synthesized. It can be activated by NTR and to restore the pull–push electronic systems of semi-CyHF, which strongly fluoresces at 556 nm. Besides, the investigation of the hypoxic tumor cell imaging with semi-CyHP was significant with minimal endogenous interference.