Small-Molecule Fluorescent Probes for Imaging and Detection of Reactive Oxygen, Nitrogen, and Sulfur Species in Biological Systems.

Abstract

Intracellular redox homeostasis provides broad implications in physiological and pathological fields. The disruption of redox homeostasis is closely associated with some human diseases, such as cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, and gastrointestinal diseases.1-6 Therefore, cells possess an elaborate regulation system to maintain their redox balance and the large or significant redox state changes can be buffered by the redox-active molecules.7,8 These molecules experience interreaction and interconversion to facilitate the dynamic balance of intracellular redox state, among which three types of representative molecules should be mentioned, including reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and reactive sulfur species (RSS).