Abstract

Rational and convenient design water-soluble two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) probes for monitoring SO2 derivatives with specificity at subcellular level remain a challenge. Herein, two low molecular weight, ratiometric fluorescence probes, bearing α, β-unsaturated benzoindolium moiety (EIM and EIS), are designed for monitoring endogenously SO2 derivatives in mitochondria using two-photon microscopy (TPM). The two probes not only showed >100nm blue-shift emission with two well-resolved bands upon addition of HSO3−/SO32−, but also displayed rapid response, high selectivity and sensitivity for monitoring and quantifying HSO3−/SO32− over other species in living cells. Further studies indicated that probes EIM and EIS can highly discern HSO3−/SO32− with two different nucleophilic addition mechanisms, respectively, just by structural fine-tuning, which were confirmed by both theoretical calculation and experimental technique. It is suggested that probes EIM/EIS with two-photon absorption property in the NIR region, large Stocks shift, high selectivity and signal ratio, are promising molecular tool for bisulfite/sulfite biology.

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