A novel near-infrared fluorescent probe for ultrasensitive and visual detection of mitochondrial viscosity

The development of fluorescent probes capable of detecting abnormal changes in cellular mitochondrial viscosity is of great significance, as these changes have been connected to many diseases. In this study, the conventional tetraphenylethylene (TPE) molecule was modified to fabricate a novel near-infrared fluorescent, TTPB, which was then used to measure the mitochondrial viscosity. Due to the introduction of TPE and pyridine groups, TTPB had an AIE effect and mitochondrial targeting function. Meanwhile, TTPB was extremely sensitive to variations in viscosity for the twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) phenomenon. The logarithm of fluorescence intensity (logI₆₂₀) of the probe demonstrated an excellent linear connection with the logarithm of viscosity (logη) in the viscosity range of 1.2 ∼ 956.0 cP, indicating the probe could quantitatively detect viscosity. Moreover, TTPB was able to visually track autophagy in addition to detecting the mitochondrial viscosity in the inflammatory cell model. These results showed that the probe was anticipated to be employed for the early diagnosis of related diseases.