A dual key-and-lock probe for high-fidelity visualizing leather-induced neuroinflammation process via an ICT-TICT integrated ratiometric two-photon platform

The neuroinflammatory response is a cascade process by which the nervous system resists infection and injury. Excessive inflammatory responses, however, can induce neurodegenerative disease. Optical imaging operation make it possible for noninvasive molecular level detection and identification of the physiological and pathological processes due to its simple structure, high sensitivity and high spatial resolution imaging capability. Among the various probes, dual-key-and-lock systems are particularly interesting for their enhanced specificity and multiplex detection. Using viscosity and H2O2 as dual response sites, we successfully constructed a dual-key-and-lock probe with the AND logic gate (DLAK-H2O2), which manifested significant fluorescence signal changes only in the presence of both viscosity and H2O2. Inflammatory responses are accompanied by increased intracellular viscosity levels and H2O2 content, whereas the viscosity changes are not evident during other physiological or pathological processes such as oxidative stress, thus ultimately enabling the precise imaging of neuroinflammation.