A bifunctional fluorescence probe for dual-channel detecting of mitochondrial viscosity and endogenous/exogenous peroxynitrite

The irregular viscosity in the mitochondrial can induce mitochondrial dysfunction. The content of peroxynitrite (ONOO-) is related to various physiological and pathological processes. However, many mitochondrial probes only realized the detection of viscosity or ONOO- in single channel, thus it is necessary to explore single fluorescence probe for dual-detecting mitochondrial viscosity and ONOO-. In this work, we designed and synthesized a novel fluorescence probe (PV) for dual-detecting viscosity and ONOO-, which was composed by intergrating a ONOO-- responsive arlyboronate with a twisting intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) mechanism and possessed the mitochondria-targeting ability due to its pyridinium cation. PV exhibited a significant increase in viscosity with red emission at 582 nm and high sensitivity to ONOO- levels with yellow emission at 507 nm. PV was also applied to living systems (including living cells and zebrafish) for viscosity and ONOO- detection using two different channels. Moreover, the ability of PV to track mitophagy may make ONOO- a powerful tool for its role in mitophagy.