A new fluorescent probe for hydrogen sulfide based on naphthalimide derivatives and its biological application

Abstract

• • A novel fluorescent probe SBD for the detection of H 2 S was constructed. • • Probe SBD displayed excellent recognition performance of H 2 S, and its solution color changed from yellow to pink. • • Probe SBD showed good cytocompatibility and could be applied to fluorescence imaging. As a signal transduction molecule in organism, H 2 S plays an important role in many physiological processes. In this paper, a novel H 2 S fluorescent probe SBD was designed based on 1,8-naphthalimide and dinitrobenzenesulfonyl group. In DMSO-PBS solution, probe SBD could recognize H 2 S and change the color of solution from yellow to pink, realizing the naked eye recognition for H 2 S. In addition, probe SBD displayed high fluorescence enhancement rate (45-fold), good selectivity, strong anti-interference ability and the detection limit was as low as 152 nM. Most importantly, probe SBD showed very low cytotoxicity and had been successfully applied to image exogenous H 2 S in living cells.