Water-soluble dual lysosome/mitochondria-targeted fluorescent probe for detection of SO2 in water, food, herb, and live cells

In this paper, we present a new donor-π bridge-acceptor type fluorescent probe, MIB, which bears two organelle-targeted groups, namely positively charged benzothiazole group for mitochondria and morpholine moiety for lysosomes. In aqueous solution, the nucleophilic addition of HSO3- (as SO2 donor) to MIB blocked its long-range π-conjugation and ICT process and resulted in significant optical signal changes (blue-shifted UV absorbance and fluorescence), which enabled colorimetric and ratiometric fluorescent detection of HSO3- with high selectivity and sensitivity (detection limit of 63.15 nM). MIB offers obvious advantages of good water-solubility, fast response time (within 1 min), unique dual lysosome/mitochondria targeting capability and has been applied to the sensing of endogenous and exogenous SO2 in live cells through fluorescent imaging. In addition, the proposed probe has been utilized for the determination of bisulfite in real water, food and herbal medicine samples, showing good recovery (91.45 % - 109.3 %) and precision.