A superoxide anion-specific chemiluminescent probe for detection of acute inflammation.

Abstract

Biomarker-responsive chemiluminescence (CL) probes have been developed as a promising technology for noninvasive bioimaging of diseases. Based on the high sensitivity of CL imaging technology, a boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based CL probe (BDPH1) with a hydroxypyridine group was designed for the detection of superoxide anion (O2˙-). The activation of BDPH1 is strictly O2˙- dependent, and the CL signal persists for longer than 40 h, which is significantly longer than the signal duration of traditional CL probes. Moreover, the CL probe can detect the inflammation in a murine peritonitis model. This study demonstrates that BDPH1 is more efficient over many existing CL probes in terms of specific selectivity and signal duration.