A ratiometric near-infrared fluorescent probe with a large emission peak shift for sensing and imaging hypochlorous acid

Diabetes, a kind of metabolic disease with characteristics of chronic hyperglycemia, can trigger a series of complications. Among them, wound healing prolonging is one of the manifestations of complications. Hypochlorous acid (HOCl) is a ubiquitous reactive oxygen species (ROS) that plays a vital role in inflammatory response and has been considered as a biomarker for monitoring a wound healing process. Herein, a ratiometric near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe, CX-MTC, was synthesized and applied for monitoring HOCl. CX-MTC possesses a simple structure and can be easy synthesized. The probe shows itself emission at 525 nm, a new emission at 665 nm is observed after the reaction with HOCl with a large emission shift of 140 nm. CX-MTC provides excellent selectivity and high sensitivity towards HOCl with 63-fold fluorescence intensity ratio enhancement. The probe can be used for monitoring HOCl in cells. Moreover, CX-MTC was successfully used for imaging HOCl in OGD/R cell model. It is also the first fluorescent probe for HOCl detection in diabetic wound healing process, which will be a potentially useful strategy for clinical assay.