Precise design and synthesis of an AIE-active glutathione fluorescent probe and its exogenous biological imaging

Real-time and accurate detection of intracellular GSH content is crucial for clinical diagnosis, disease treatment, and pathogen detection. Creating fluorescent probes that possess aggregation induced emission (AIE) and precisely detect GSH remains a formidable challenge despite the widespread reporting of numerous fluorescent probes for GSH recognition. This may due to the absence of effective strategies. Herein, using a "turn off - turn on" strategy, a novel fluorescent probe DPND with AIE characteristic has been devised and synthesized. It can detect GSH selectively and uninhibitedly in the presence of various ions. The limit of detection of DPND-Cu2+ for GSH was calculated to be 1.17 μM, demonstrating the probe's ability to detect GSH quantitatively. More crucially, the probe exhibits low toxicity and solid biocompatibility while recognizing GSH in HeLa cells and mices, indicating that it may be a promising candidate for in vivo detection of GSH. Consequently, this work offers the potential to precisely tailor molecular recognition of GSH in addition to providing ongoing exploration of approaches for monitoring GSH.