MOE Laboratory of Bioinorganic and Synthetic Chemistry, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, PR China.
Department of Chemistry, University of Zurich, Winterthurestrasse 190, CH-8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Biomaterials. 2015 Sep;63:128-36. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2015.06.014. Epub 2015 Jun 14.
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) and its derivatives sulfite and bisulfite play important roles in biological systems. However, in vivo detection of sulfite/bisulfite remains challenging. In this study, we developed a dinuclear Ir(III) complex (Ir4) as a two-photon phosphorescent probe for sulfite and bisulfite. Ir4 selectively and rapidly responded, with high sensitivity, to sulfite/bisulfite over other bio-related ions and molecules. One-photon and two-photon microscopy images revealed that Ir4 preferentially targeted mitochondria and was capable of imaging biological sulfite/bisulfite levels in vitro and in vivo. In situ sulfite generation in Caenorhabditis elegans was visualized by two-photon excitation real-time imaging. Finally, Ir4 was employed to monitor sulfite distribution in rat brain and other tissues. This study is the first report of the direct visualization of SO2 derivatives in vivo. These results provide new insights into the biological importance of SO2.
二氧化硫（SO2）及其衍生物亚硫酸盐和亚硫酸氢盐在生物系统中发挥着重要作用。然而，亚硫酸盐/亚硫酸氢盐的体内检测仍然具有挑战性。在本研究中，我们开发了一种双核 Ir(III)配合物（Ir4）作为亚硫酸盐和亚硫酸氢盐的双光子磷光探针。Ir4 选择性且快速响应，对亚硫酸盐/亚硫酸氢盐具有高灵敏度，超过其他生物相关离子和分子。单光子和双光子显微镜图像显示，Ir4 优先靶向线粒体，并能够在体外和体内成像生物亚硫酸盐/亚硫酸氢盐水平。通过双光子激发实时成像可视化秀丽隐杆线虫中原位亚硫酸盐的生成。最后，Ir4 用于监测大鼠脑和其他组织中亚硫酸盐的分布。本研究首次报道了在体内直接可视化 SO2 衍生物。这些结果为 SO2 的生物学重要性提供了新的见解。
