An activatable fluorescent probe for imaging endogenous nitric oxide via the eNOS enzymatic pathway

Nitric oxide (NO) is an essential cellular messenger molecule involved in various physiological and pathological processes. Thus, monitoring the dynamic presence of endogenous NO in living cells is of great significance. In this paper, we developed an activatable fluorescent nanoprobe BOD-NH-NP for endogenous NO detection. In the probe BOD-NH-NP, the fast responding reaction site towards NO, incorporating a BODIPY fluorescent dye with good optical features, enables the probe to be applied for the detection of endogenous NO via the eNOS enzymatic pathway in living cells and screening nitric oxide synthases (NOSs) inhibitors and agonists.

Automated summary

This paper presents the development of an activatable fluorescent nanoprobe, BOD-NH-NP, for detecting endogenous nitric oxide (NO). The probe shows fast responding reaction towards NO and incorporates a BODIPY fluorescent dye with good optical features, making it applicable for detecting endogenous NO in living cells and screening nitric oxide synthases (NOSs) inhibitors and agonists.