Boronate based sensitive fluorescent probe for the detection of endogenous peroxynitrite in living cells

In this work, a novel boronate-based fluorescent probe (FAM) for the endogenous detection of peroxynitrite (ONOO^-) has been developed by using anthracycline as the fluorophore, arlyboronate as the recognition moiety, lipophilic cation as the mitochondrial targeting moiety. Upon reaction of the probe with ONOO^-, the oxidation and subsequent hydrolysis of ONOO^- to arlyboronate triggers quite rapid fluorescence off-on response, providing a sensitive and highly selective method for the detection of ONOO^-. In addition, probe holds high sensitivity with the detection limit of 3.2 nM and excellent specificity including a series of biologically relevant reactive oxygen species. Importantly, FAM with good water solubility displays excellent performances for imaging endogenous peroxynitrite produced by RAW264.7 cells.