Lysosome-Targeted Dual-Functional Probe Capable of Detecting Acute Kidney Injury via In Vivo Imaging and Urinary Albumin Detection

Drug-induced acute kidney injury (AKI) emerged as a pressing global health concern, necessitating the urgent development of sensitive, in situ, in vivo detection methods. Fluorescent probes demonstrated attractive advantages in disease diagnosis, particularly dual-target responsive fluorescent probes that provide superior reliability. This paper presents a lysosome-targeted dual-functional fluorescent probe, MDSM-L, suitable for quantitative detection of serum/urine albumin and real-time in vivo detection of drug-induced AKI. MDSM-L exhibits sensitive fluorescence activation characteristics for serum albumin and viscosity at 675 and 710 nm, respectively, enabling successful fluorescence detection of BSA and lysosomal viscosity changes in living cells. Notably, this probe can specifically target the kidney and has been successfully employed for the quantitative analysis of serum/urine albumin in an AKI mouse model and in vivo imaging of the kidneys. Experimental results reveal that during AKI, the albumin content in the serum slightly decreases, while the albumin content in urine significantly increases. Concurrently, the lysosomal viscosity within kidney tissue escalates. These findings suggest that MDSM-L, as a dual-responsive fluorescent probe for albumin and viscosity, offers a novel diagnostic tool for drug-induced AKI.