A two-photon excited near-infrared fluorescent probe for imaging peroxynitrite during drug-induced hepatotoxicity and its remediation.

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) has been a hot issue of public health, owing to its unpredictability and serious harm to public health. Peroxynitrite (ONOO) is an important biomarker for the assessment and diagnosis of DILI. In this article, based on a kind of rhodamine analogue with a near-infrared (NIR) emission (610 nm-800 nm) and a two-photon absorption cross section (54 GM), a two-photon excited NIR fluorescence probe (NIR-ONOO) for ONOO was developed. With a high selectivity and a high sensitivity to ONOO, NIR-ONOO has a linear range for detection of ONOO from 5.0 × 10 to 1.0 × 10 M, a good detection limit (15 nM) and a large fluorescence enhancement (340-fold). In addition, NIR-ONOO has been used to monitor ONOO in cells with satisfactory results. Because of its two-photon excied NIR emission, NIR-ONOO also showed excellent performances for imaging ONOO including low autofluorescence, stable and persistent fluorescence, and a deep penetration (204 μm). Finally, NIR-ONOO was successfully employed to image ONOO in inflammatory mouse, drug-induced hepatotoxicity in cells and its remediation. All the results indicated that NIR-ONOO is a powerful chemical tool to image ONOO and assay drug-induced hepatotoxicity.