Construction of a two-photon fluorescent turn-on probe for hydrogen persulfide and polysulfide and its bioimaging application in living mice

Intense biological studies have indicated that the biological functions associated with hydrogen sulfide may actually be mediated by H2Sn (n > 1). Therefore, it is necessary to construction small-molecule fluorescent probe for the visualization of concentration of H2Sn (n > 1) in living systems. Here, we described a novel two-photon fluorescent turn-on probe, GCTPOC-H2S2, for specific detection of H2Sn, and the probe displayed high selectivity and sensitivity to H2Sn. Furthermore, we demonstrated that the probe GCTPOC-H2S2 could be employed to in situ image of H2Sn in living mice for the first time. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.