Imaging of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) during the ferroptosis process in living cancer cells with a practical fluorescence probe

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) plays an important role in intracellular signal transduction pathway. It has been closely associated with the occurrence and development of tumors as well as the recent studied ferroptosis. In this work, monitoring the H2O2 level during the ferroptosis process in living cancer cells was achieved by using a new practical fluorescence probe, HP, accompanying with a series of property evaluation and model construction. As a practical tool, HP indicated high sensitivity (LOD 0.77 μM), high selectivity and low toxicity. Most satisfactorily, it could realize the applications of mapping the variation of intracellular H2O2 level regulated by the inducer or activator and visualizing the H2O2 release event as a significant feature during the ferroptosis process. This work was a challenging trial to monitor dynamic parameters of ferroptosis, and offered crucial information about the role of H2O2 for investigating further physiological or pathological processes.