A bifunctional fluorescence probe for dual-channel detecting of mitochondrial viscosity and endogenous/exogenous...

The irregular viscosity in the mitochondrial can induce mitochondrial dysfunction. The content of peroxynitrite (ONOO^-) is related to various physiological and pathological processes. However, many mitochondrial probes only realized the detection of viscosity or ONOO^- in single channel, thus it is necessary to explore single fluorescence probe for dual-detecting mitochondrial viscosity and ONOO^-. In this work, we designed and synthesized a novel fluorescence probe (PV) for dual-detecting viscosity and ONOO^-, which was composed by intergrating a ONOO^-- responsive arlyboronate with a twisting intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) mechanism and possessed the mitochondria-targeting ability due to its pyridinium cation. PV exhibited a significant increase in viscosity with red emission at 582 nm and high sensitivity to ONOO^- levels with yellow emission at 507 nm. PV was also applied to living systems (including living cells and zebrafish) for viscosity and ONOO^- detection using two different channels. Moreover, the ability of PV to track mitophagy may make ONOO^- a powerful tool for its role in mitophagy.