Fluorescent Probes for Intracellular Carbon Monoxide Detection

Abstract

Over the past two decades, carbon monoxide (CO) has been revealing itself not just as a tragic and toxic molecule, but also as an endogenous signaling molecule and increasingly as a potential therapeutic. In this chapter, the authors look specifically at the mechanistic approaches toward CO detection, key advances of specific probe classes that allow for lower limits of detection (LODs), and other important characteristics such as shifted emission wavelengths. The successful approaches toward the detection of intracellular CO all utilize a metal to facilitate the interaction of the probe with CO. The authors broadly categorize these efforts into three main categories: fluorescent protein; metal displacement; and metal reduction. In the first decade of development, metal displacement and deallylation approaches have been the most prevalent approaches to CO detection, in terms of both development and application.