A red-emitting mitochondria targetable fluorescent probe for detecting viscosity in HeLa, zebrafish, and mice

Viscosity, an essential parameter of the cellular microenvironment, has the ability to indicate the condition of living cells. It is closely linked to numerous diseases like Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, and cardiovascular disorders. Therefore, it is necessary to design tools to effectively monitor viscosity changes, which could provide promising avenues for therapeutic interventions in these diseases. Herein, we report a novel mitochondria-targeting fluorescent probe GX-VS which was suitable for the detection of viscosity changes in vivo and in vitro. The probe GX-VS had many advantages such as long emission wavelength (650 nm), large Stokes shift (105 nm), significant fluorescence enhancement (59-fold), high sensitivity, good biocompatibility and so on. Biological experiments showed that the probe could target mitochondria and detect viscosity alterations in HeLa cells. Moreover, it has been successfully utilized to monitor viscosity changes induced by lipopolysaccharides (LPS) in inflammatory zebrafishes and living mice, which further underscored the capacity of GX-VS to explore fluctuations in viscosity within living organisms.