Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probe for the In Situ Visualization of Oxidative Stress in the Brains of Neuroinflammatory and Schizophrenic Mice

Schizophrenia is a common mental disorder with unclearmechanisms.Oxidative stress and neuroinflammation play important roles in thepathological process of schizophrenia. Superoxide anion (O-2 (& BULL;-)) is an important oxidative stress biomarker in vivo. However, due to the existence of the blood-brainbarrier (BBB), few near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probes have beenused for the sensing and detection of O-2 (& BULL;-) in the brain. With this research, we developed the first near-infraredfluorescent probe (named CT-CF3) for noninvasivedetection of endogenous O-2 (& BULL;-) inthe brain of mice. Enabling fluorescence monitoring of the dynamicchanges in O-2 (& BULL;-) flux due to theprolonged activation of microglia in neuroinflamed and schizophrenic(SZ) mice brains, thereby providing direct evidence for the relationshipbetween oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and schizophrenia. Furthermore,we confirmed the O-2 (& BULL;-) burst inthe brains of first-episode schizophrenic mice and assessed the effectof two atypical antipsychotic drugs (risperidone and olanzapine) onredox homeostasis.