Endoplasmic reticulum-targeting fluorescence turn-on probe for nitric oxide detection in living cells and serum samples

Spectrochim Acta A Mol Biomol Spectrosc. 2025 Jan 15:325:125172. doi: 10.1016/j.saa.2024.125172. Epub 2024 Sep 19.

Abstract

Nitric oxide (NO) is an important gas signaling molecule, and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress induced by NO may be related to the pathogenesis of many diseases. Therefore, the development of ER-targeted fluorescent probes for NO is of great significance to investigate the relationship between ER stress and NO concentration changes in related diseases. Herein, an ER-targeted fluorescent probe (ER-Np) for sensing NO was constructed. ER-Np was served as an excellent tool for detection NO with high selectivity, sensitivity and ER-targetable ability. Moreover, fluorescence imaging experiments indicated that ER-Np is capable of imaging NO in living cells. Impressively, visualization of endogenous NO production during dithiothreitol (DTT)-induced ER stress in living cells was successfully observed. In addition, we found that serum NO levels were upregulated in epilepsy children, which opens up a new avenue for further understanding the relationship between the diagnostic of epilepsy.

Keywords: ER stress; Epilepsy; Fluorescence imaging; Fluorescent probe; Nitric oxide.

MeSH terms

  • Child
  • Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress
  • Endoplasmic Reticulum* / metabolism
  • Epilepsy / blood
  • Epilepsy / diagnosis
  • Fluorescent Dyes* / chemistry
  • HeLa Cells
  • Humans
  • Nitric Oxide* / analysis
  • Nitric Oxide* / blood
  • Nitric Oxide* / metabolism
  • Optical Imaging
  • Spectrometry, Fluorescence

Substances

  • Nitric Oxide
  • Fluorescent Dyes