Mitochondria-Targeted Red-Emission Fluorescent Probe for Ultrafast Detection of H2S in Food and Its Bioimaging Application

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) contributes to human health and prolongs the storage time of postharvest fruits and vegetables. At the same time, H2S can cause a negative impact on some foodstuffs and beverages, so an efficient probe to detect H2S is needed. Herein, a fluorescent turn-on responding probe SPy-DNs for H2S detection has been designed and synthesized. SPy-DNs exhibited a red emission (608 nm), large Stokes shift (111 nm), and a detection limit of a nanomolar level (356 nM) in a dimethylformamide/phosphate-buffered saline (DMF/PBS) (1:1, v/v, 10 mM, pH 7.4) solution. SPy-DNs can detect H2S with ultrafast response within 4 s, which is faster than the response of other reported probes. In addition, the applicability of SPy-DNs to detect H2S has been determined in the actual water samples, targeted mitochondria, and imaged H2S in living cells. Moreover, SPy-DNs was successfully used as a tool to judge H2S levels in beer, which indicates that SPy-DNs possesses the advantage of rapid detection of H2S in foodstuffs.

Automated summary

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has benefits for human health and postharvest fruits and vegetables, but can also have negative impacts on some foodstuffs and beverages. A fluorescent turn-on responding probe SPy-DNs has been designed for efficient detection of H2S, exhibiting red emission, large Stokes shift, and nanomolar level detection limit. SPy-DNs shows ultrafast response to H2S, making it a valuable tool for rapid detection in various applications.