Activatable Near-Infrared Fluorescent Organic Nanoprobe for Hypochlorous Acid Detection in the Early Diagnosis of Rheumatoid Arthritis

Early diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is crucial toprevent deterioration and improve the prognosis of disease outcome. However,current clinical diagnostic methods are unable to achieve accurate and earlydetection of RA. In this work, we designed an activatable organic nanoprobe(ONP-CySe) capable of specific and real-time imaging of ClO-in early RA.ONP-CySecomprises a near-infraredfluorescent selenomorpholine-cagedcyanine dye as the sensing component and an amphiphilic triblock copolymertriphenyl phosphine derivative for mitochondria targeting. Our results showedthatONP-CySesuccessfully detected elevated levels of ClO-in themitochondria of macrophages with high selectivity, low limit of detection(31.5 nM), excellent photostability, and good biocompatibility. Furthermore,ONP-CySecan also be used to monitor anti-inflammatory responses andefficacies of RA therapeutics, such as selenocysteine and methotrexate, inBALB/c mouse models. Therefore, our research proposes a universal moleculardesign strategy for the detection of ClO-, which holds potential for early diagnosis and drug screening for RA.

Automated summary

This study designs an organic nanoprobe capable of real-time imaging of ClO- in early RA. The probe exhibits high selectivity and low detection limit for ClO- levels, and is able to monitor treatment responses and efficacy in a mouse model. The research proposes a universal molecular design strategy for the detection of ClO-, which holds potential for early diagnosis and drug screening for RA.