Hydrogen polysulfide (H2Sn) is an emerging topic of research because it plays a critical role in the pathological and physiological activities of an organism. Therefore, visual monitoring of H2Sn activity in living cells is critical. In our work, a two-photon fluorescent probe NI-H2S2 based on a naphthalimide skeleton was developed as a molecular tool for detecting hydrogen polysulfides in solution and live HeLa cells. NI-H2S2 showed rapid response and high sensitivity. Notably, hydrogen polysulfides in hippocampal tissue of mice could also be tracked using the probe under a two-photon fluorescence microscope. Therefore, this probe NI-H2S2 is expected to serve as a pragmatic tool for studying the physiological roles of hydrogen polysulfides in living cells and in vivo.
This study was supported by grants from the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the Korean government (MSIP) (No. 2012R1A3A2048814 for J. Y. and 2019R1A2B5B03100278 for H.M.K). High-resolution mass spectrometer analysis was performed on the Synapt G2-HDMS mass spectrometer (Waters, Manchester, U.K.), which was operated on the MassLynx 4.1 software at KBSI (Korea Basic Science Institue, Ochang, Center of Research Equipment).
