Elevated hypochlorous acid levels in asthmatic mice were disclosed by a near-infrared fluorescence probe

Asthma is a respiratory inflammatory disease that seriously threatens human health. A growing body of evidence suggests that hypochlorous acid (HClO) plays an instrumental role in inflammation-related diseases, and therefore we hypothesize that it may be associated with asthma. Unfortunately, tracking HClO levels in asthma remains challenging due to the lack of effective measures for in vivo imaging. Herein, we exquisitely designed a near-infrared fluorescence probe dicyanomethylene-4H-pyran-dimethylthiocarbamyl (DCM-DMTC) for exploring the relationship between HClO and asthma, which has high sensitivity (about 76 times), a low limit of detection (44 nM), and great selectivity for HClO. In addition, the probe DCM-DMTC was successfully employed in tracing exogenous and endogenous HClO in living cells. Notably, the higher levels of HClO in the lungs of asthmatic mice than in normal mice were visualized by fluorescence imaging for the first time, indicating a remarkably intimate association between asthma and the overproduction of HClO.