Engineering a double-rotor-based fluorescent molecule to sensitively track mitochondrial viscosity in living cells and zebrafish with high signal-to-background ratio (S/B)

An innovative design strategy has been proposed to construct viscosity-sensitive fluorescent probes with superior sensitivity and high signal-to-background ratio (S/B) based on double-rotor molecular platform. As a proof-of-concept, a double-rotor-based fluorescent molecule (DRVP) containing two rotors, quinolinium and carbazole moieties, was developed to track viscosity using a strong ICT platform. The cationic probe DRVP is able to visualize the mitochondrial viscosity variations in living cells and zebrafish.