A novel dansyl-naphthalimide fluorescent probe for visualizing nitroxyl (HNO) in biological systems

Nitroxyl (HNO), a kind of active nitrogen species, plays a vital role in particular physiological and pathological process. Urgent detection of HNO and understanding its biological roles in living systems is indispensable. Herein, we presented a novel dansyl-naphthalimide fluorescent sensor, NA-PA, for the selective response for HNO with remarkable fluorescence enhancement (ΦF = 32.5%) due to the hydrolysis of boronic pinacol ester. The proposed probe exhibited the desirable prominent features of high sensitivity, fast response, excellent selectivity and low cytotoxicity. Importantly, the probe works well in visualizing HNO in HepG-2 cells and live mice, illuminating that NA-PA would be a powerful tool to evaluate the physiological and pathological functions of HNO in life.