A highly selective and sensitive red-emitting fluorescent probe for bioimaging of hypobromous acid in living cells

Hypobromous acid (HOBr) is an indispensable reactive oxygen species which is necessary for the functioning of many cellular functions. However, abnormal HOBr can cause serious harm to the environment and organisms. Nowadays, fluorescent probe techniques are widely used in the detection of biomolecules in living bodies, but few fluorescent probes have been investigated for the detection of HOBr in living cells. Based on the above considerations, we synthesized a fluorescent probe RD-HOBr for detecting HOBr. Probe RD-HOBr has the characteristics of fast response (<4 s), high selectivity and naked eye detectability. Notably, because the detection limit of the probe RD-HOBr for detecting HOBr is only 1.37 nM, it has the advantage of high sensitivity to HOBr. In addition, the probe RD-HOBr can not only detect HOBr in actual water samples, but also has the advantage of low toxicity and can detect HOBr in cells sensitively. Therefore, the construction of probe RD-HOBr not only provides a new tool for the sensitive detection of HOBr, but is also expected to provide a new method for the detection of HOBr in biological organisms.