Mitochondria-Targetable Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probe for Visualization of Hydrogen Peroxide in Lung Injury, Liver Injury, and Tumor Models.

Hydrogen peroxide (HO) 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 HO in multiple diseases, such as PM 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 () by introducing pentafluorobenzenesulfonyl as a HO sensing unit into the NIR hemicyanine platform. exhibits good sensitivity and selectivity toward HO, accompanied by a remarkable "turn-on" fluorescence signal at 720 nm. Meanwhile, has stable mitochondria-targetable ability and permits monitoring of the up-generated HO level during mitophagy. Furthermore, using , we have successfully observed an overproduced mitochondrial HO in ambient PM exposure-induced lung injury, HIRI, NAFL, and HF models through NIR fluorescence imaging. Significantly, the visualization of HO has been achieved in both tumor-bear mice as well as surgical specimens of cancer patients, making a promising tool for cancer diagnosis and imaging-guided surgery.