A rational design of fluorescent probes for specific detection and imaging of endogenous formaldehyde in living cells

Abstract

Formaldehyde (FA) plays important roles in many physiological processes and closely relates to human health. However, the specific detection of FA remains a great challenge. Herein, we report a rational strategy for specific detection and imaging of FA through combining characteristic structure of a fluorophore merged with the modified ortho-phenylenediamine as a recognition moiety. After the reaction of FA and the propyl-modified ortho-phenylenediamine, the probe NP1 and NP2 based on naphthalimide fluorophore exhibited the turn-on fluorescence response for the detection of FA. In particular, the probe NP2 with the greater steric hindrance presented superior specificity for imaging the endogenous FA in living cells. This work may serve as a general strategy to design specific recognition moieties for FA probes.