A dicyanoisophorone-based near-infrared fluorescent probe with fast detection for H2S in living cells and zebrafish

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is a well known gaseous signal transmitter in physiological and pathological processes. Herein, we developed a near infrared (NIR) fluorescence probe XXMU-H2S based on dicyanophosphone derivatives, which was surprisingly found to show high selectivity for H2S over various other analytes including biothiols, making it feasible to detect H2S in living system. After reaction with H2S, this probe showed rapid and significant turn-on NIR emission changes centered at 686 nm within 10 min, a remarkable large Stokes shift (138 nm) and high sensitivity (LOD: 16 nM). Furthermore, the probe has also been successfully applied to imaging of exogenous and endogenous H2S in living cells and zebrafish.