Chromene-based fluorescent probes for sensing and bioimaging
Kaiqing Ma, Lingling Zhao, Yongkang Yue, Caixia Yin
Abstract
Chromene is an important motif in natural products and is the backbone for a range of fluorescent molecules. Chromene derivatives are particularly important for biological applications because of their distinctive photophysical and chemical properties. Recent research efforts have been focused on utilizing chromene-based probes motif for biological sensing applications. Most notably, the “thiol-chromene” click reaction realized the selective and rapid recognition of thiols. This Review presents the various chromene-based probes for a range of biologically relevant analytes. This includes examples of sensors for thiols, amino acids, hydrogen peroxide, and nitroreductase, as well as subcellular organelle-targeted probes.