Simultaneous detection of peroxynitrite and viscosity in diabetes by a dual response fluorescent probe

Diabetes is a common metabolic disease worldwide, which often has serious complications and seriously threatens human health. Abnormal viscosity and peroxynitrite (ONOO−) concentration are closely related to diabetes. Herein, we report a fluorescent dual response probe AO, which can simultaneously detect the changes of viscosity and ONOO− in diabetes at dual fluorescence channels. AO sensitively responds to viscosity and ONOO− with significant emission signal changes at 710 nm and 645 nm, respectively. Moreover, AO selectively targets mitochondria and generates a new compound when detecting ONOO−, which can spontaneously target and light up another type of organelle (lipid droplets), thus showing spatially separated dual-channel fluorescence signals. More notably, AO was successfully used to simultaneously detect the viscosity and ONOO− variations in hyperglycemic cells, diabetes and its complications (using mice models) for the first time, which may lead to a better understanding of the physiological and pathological phenomena of diabetes.