A red emitting fluorescent probe for imaging mitochondrial hydrogen polysulfide in living cells and tissues

Hydrogen polysulfide (H2Sn) has attracted increasing attention since H2Sn instead of H2S has been shown to be the actual signaling molecule in physiological and pathological processes. Thus, developing accurate and sensitive assays for H2Sn detection is urgently needed in biological science. In this work, we developed a red emitting mitochondria-targeting fluorescent probe, HQO-PSP, that is capable of tracking H2Sn. With low cytotoxicity, good selectively and high sensitively, HQO-PSP was able to detect H2Sn in living cells. Furthermore, we also demonstrated that HQO-PSP could also be successfully applied to recognize H2Sn in living tissues.