Simultaneous Detection of Hydrogen Sulfide and Peroxynitrite Dysregulation with a Sequentially Activated Fluorescent Probe in Ulcerative Colitis Disease
Yiliang Chen, Jiawei Bao, Qi Wang, Muhammad Salman Hameed, Siyuan Tang, Chen Qian, Fan Hai, Jufen Yan, Ganggang Yang, Kui Zhang, Xinya Han
Abstract
Ulcerative colitis (UC), often referred to as “green cancer”, is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease with an unclear etiology, closely associated with the imbalance of hydrogen sulfide (H 2 S) and peroxynitrite (ONOO – ). H 2 S exhibits anti-inflammatory effects at physiological levels, but excessive concentrations can compromise the intestinal barrier, while ONOO – aggravates inflammation. To facilitate the molecular-level monitoring of these compounds in UC, we developed a novel fluorescent probe, BCH, capable of simultaneously detecting H 2 S and ONOO – via distinct fluorescent channels in a cascade mode. BCH features rapid response times (H 2 S: 6 min; ONOO –: 5 min) with well-separated emission peaks (120 nm), minimizing spectral overlap. The probe demonstrates high selectivity and good detection linearity for H 2 S (0–500 μM) and ONOO – (0–100 μM), with detection limits of 1.6 μM for H 2 S and 0.05 μM for ONOO – . BCH has been successfully applied for imaging H 2 S and ONOO – in living cells and zebrafish, enabling the sensitive detection of their fluctuations in a UC mouse model. These findings indicate that BCH is highly promising for studying the roles of H 2 S and ONOO – in UC and assessing their biological functions.