Mitochondria-targeted two-photon fluorescent probe for the detection of biothiols in living cells

Abstract

Mitochondrial thiols play a key role in maintaining the redox environment. In this work, three mitochondria-targeted two-photon probes (1–3) have been explored to detect biothiols in vitro and in vivo with a large turn-on fluorescence signal. These fluorescence probes display sensitive and selective response to thiols in the water environment, feature good linearity ranges with low detection limit. The negligible cytotoxicity, excellent photophysical properties and high selectivity of these probes will find their useful applications in biomedical research.