A lysosome-targetable fluorescent probe for imaging ONOO− in living cells and animals

Peroxynitrite (ONOO−) is one of the most important reactive oxygen species (ROS) in living systems and its subcellular detection is very important. In this research, a lysosome-targetable fluorescent probe for detection of exogenous and endogenous peroxynitrite in living systems was developed. This probe exhibits not only fast (25 s), highly sensitive (detection limit = 16 nM), and highly selective red to near-infrared fluorescent turn-on responses for ONOO− in the solution, but also excellent imaging ability for ONOO− in living cells and animals with low cytotoxicity. Moreover, this probe is lysosome-targetable and can be used for imaging lysosomal ONOO− in living cells. Overall, this work provides a new powerful fluorescent turn-on probe for detection of lysosomal peroxynitrite in living systems.