Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Biology and Medicine (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University , Wuhan, Hubei 430072, China.
Anal Chem. 2017 Sep 19;89(18):9620-9624. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.7b02697. Epub 2017 Aug 29.
Two-photon (TP) fluorescent probes are potential candidates for near-infrared (NIR) imaging which holds great promise in biological research. However, currently, most TP probes emit at wavelength <600 nm, which impedes their practical applications. In this work, we explored the TP properties of a silicon-rhodamine (SiR) derivative and hence developed the first SiR scaffold based "NIR-to-NIR" TP probe (SiRNO) for nitric oxide (NO). SiRNO exhibited high sensitivity and specificity, as well as fast response for NO detection. It was able to track the subtle variation of intracellular NO content in live cells. Owing to the NIR excitation and emission, SiRNO enabled the detection of NO in situ in the xenograft tumor mouse model, revealing the NO generation during the tumor progression. This work indicates that SiR can be an ideal platform for the development of NIR emissive TP probe and may thus promote the advancement of NIR imaging.
双光子（TP）荧光探针是近红外（NIR）成像的潜在候选者，在生物研究中具有广阔的应用前景。然而，目前大多数 TP 探针的发射波长<600nm，这限制了它们的实际应用。在这项工作中，我们探索了硅罗丹明（SiR）衍生物的 TP 性质，并因此开发了第一个基于 SiR 支架的“NIR 到 NIR”TP 探针（SiRNO）用于检测一氧化氮（NO）。SiRNO 对 NO 的检测表现出高灵敏度、特异性和快速响应，能够在活细胞中跟踪细胞内 NO 含量的微妙变化。由于采用 NIR 激发和发射，SiRNO 能够在异种移植肿瘤小鼠模型中对原位 NO 进行检测，揭示了肿瘤进展过程中的 NO 生成。这项工作表明，SiR 可以作为开发近红外发射 TP 探针的理想平台，从而推动近红外成像的发展。
