Fabrication of a fluorescent probe for in-situ and ratiometric visualization of autophagy

In situ and real-time visualization of autophagy process is of vital importance for fundamental researches in biology. However, fluorescent probes for autophagy were rarely reported, which greatly hindered the study on autophagy. In this work, a fluorescent probe was rationally designed and fabricated for the ratiometric visualization of autophagy. The probe targeted non-lysosome organelles in healthy cells, and gave blue emission. During autophagy, the organelles together with the probe were delivered into acid lysosomes, and gave red fluorescence. In this way, the autophagy process could be monitored in ratiometric manner. The starvation induced autophagy was successfully visualized by means of the probe, and the inhibition effect of chloroquine to autophagy was also observed. We expect that the probe can serve as a powerful tool for the investigation of autophagy and relative areas.