Highly Selective and Sensitive One- and Two-Photon Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe for Intracellular Hydrogen Polysulfide Sensing

Hydrogen polysulfide (H2Sn) has attracted increasing attention due to the fact that it is actually the key signaling molecule rather than hydrogen sulfide (H2Sn). Therefore, developing a sensitive and accurate assay to investigate the biosynthetic pathways of H2Sn is of physiological and pathological significance. In this work, based on the commonly used two-photon fluorophore, 1,8-naphthalimide, a new probe, NRT-HP, has been designed and synthesized that displayed both one- and two-photon ratiometric fluorescence changes toward H2Sn via H2Sn-mediated benzodithiolone formation. NRT-HP exhibits excellent pH stability, high selectivity and low detection limit (0.1 mu M) in aqueous media. Furthermore, two-photon fluorescence microscopy experiments have demonstrated that NRT-HP could be used for the H2Sn detection in live cells as well as tissue slices.