Endoplasmic reticulum-targeted fluorescent probe with aggregation-induced emission features for imaging peroxynitrite in drug-induced liver injury model.

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) poses a severe threat to public health. Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress contributes significantly to DILI pathogenesis, with peroxynitrite (ONOO) identified as a pivotal indicator. However, the temporal and spatial fluctuations of ONOO associated with ER stress in the pathogenesis of DILI remain unclear. Herein, a novel ER-specific near-infrared (NIR) probe (QM-ONOO) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) features for monitoring ONOO fluctuations in DILI was elaborately constructed. QM-ONOO exhibited excellent ER-targeting specificity, a large Stoke's shift, and a low detection limit (26.9 nM) toward ONOO. QM-ONOO performed well in imaging both exogenous and endogenous ONOO in HepG2 cells. Furthermore, molecular docking calculations validated the ER-targeting mechanism of QM-ONOO. Most importantly, using this probe allowed us to intuitively observe the dynamic fluctuations of ONOO during the formation and remediation processes of DILI in the acetaminophen (APAP)-induced mouse model. Consequently, this work provides a promising tool for in-depth research of ONOO associated pathological processes in DILI.