Coumarin-cyanine hybrid: A ratiometric fluorescent probe for accurate detection of peroxynitrite in mitochondria.

There is an urgent need to develop highly sensitive and selective fluorescence probes for ONOO- in mitochondria. Herein, we reported a ratiometric fluorescent probe COUS with coumarin-cyanine hybrid as fluorophore and C = C bonds as reaction sites of ONOO-. The probe COUS was sensitive and selective to ONOO-, and had a large fluorescence emission shift (239 nm) as well as a low detection limit (41.88 nM). Moreover, COUS showed the mitochondrial targeting ability, and the targeting moiety could dissociate from the probe when reacting with ONOO-, which enabled COUS to accurately detect ONOO- in mitochondria.