A novel donor-acceptor fluorescent probe for the fluorogenic/ chromogenic detection and bioimaging of nitric oxide

Nitric oxide (NO) plays an essential role in regulating various physiological and pathological processes. This has spurred various efforts to develop feasible methods for the detection of NO. Herein we designed and synthesized a novel donor-acceptor fluorescent probe Car-NO for the selective and specific detection of NO. Reaction of Car-NO with NO generated a new donor-acceptor structure with strong intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) effect, and led to remarkable chromogenic change from yellow to blue and dramatic fluorescence quenching. Car-NO exhibited high selectivity, excellent sensitivity, and rapid response for the detection of NO. In addition, the nanoparticles prepared from Car-NO (i.e., Car-NO NPs) showed strong NIR emission and high selectivity/sensitivity. Car-NO NPs was successfully employed to image both endogenous and exogenous NO in HeLa and RAW 264.7 cells. The present findings reveal that Car-NO is a promising probe for the detection and bioimaging of NO.