Mitochondria-Targetable Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probe for Visualization of Hydrogen Peroxide in Lung Injury, Liver Injury, and Tumor Models
Qi Zan, Kunyi Zhao, Ruijin Li, Yongming Yang, Xihua Yang, Wenzhong Li, Gangli Zhang, Chuan Dong, Shaomin Shuang, Li Fan
Abstract
Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) overexpressed in mitochondria has been regarded as a key biomarker in the pathological processes of various diseases. However, there is currently a lack of suitable mitochondria-targetable near-infrared (NIR) probes for the visualization of H 2 O 2 in multiple diseases, such as PM 2.5 exposure-induced lung injury, hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (HIRI), nonalcoholic fatty liver (NAFL), hepatic fibrosis (HF), and malignant tumor tissues containing clinical cancer patient samples. Herein, we conceived a novel NIR fluorescent probe ( HCy-H 2 O 2 ) by introducing pentafluorobenzenesulfonyl as a H 2 O 2 sensing unit into the NIR hemicyanine platform. HCy-H 2 O 2 exhibits good sensitivity and selectivity toward H 2 O 2, accompanied by a remarkable “turn-on” fluorescence signal at 720 nm. Meanwhile, HCy-H 2 O 2 has stable mitochondria-targetable ability and permits monitoring of the up-generated H 2 O 2 level during mitophagy. Furthermore, using HCy-H 2 O 2, we have successfully observed an overproduced mitochondrial H 2 O 2 in ambient PM 2.5 exposure-induced lung injury, HIRI, NAFL, and HF models through NIR fluorescence imaging. Significantly, the visualization of H 2 O 2 has been achieved in both tumor-bear mice as well as surgical specimens of cancer patients, making HCy-H 2 O 2 a promising tool for cancer diagnosis and imaging-guided surgery.