Cascade reaction based fluorescent probe for detection of hydrogen sulfide

Abstract

Hydrogen sulfide in an essential gasotransmitter that controls several physiological and pathological functions such as, cardiovascular protection, antioxidative effects, cell growth regulation, cell signaling, and apoptosis. In recent years, development of fluorescent H2S probe that work via cascade reaction process, is of great interest. In the present work, we have developed a new probe based on the azide to amine reduction followed by Pinner cyclization to form iminocoumarin as reporter molecule. The probe showed selective response to hydrogen sulfide over other analytes with t1/2 = 6.1 min, 31-fold fluorescence enhancement and the limit of detection 169 nM. The probe was also permeable through the cell membranes and its application in live cell imaging of H2S was also demonstrated using HeLa cells.