Singlet oxygen probes made simple: Anthracenylmethyl substituted fluorophores as reaction-based probes for detection and imaging of cellular 1O2

Singlet oxygen plays an important role in cancer chemotherapy and biology of reactive oxygen species. In recent years, there are some reports of selective fluorescent probes for detection and imaging of singlet oxygen but the existing probes have some major drawbacks including complicated synthetic routes, poor fluorescence enhancement effects. We report herein that anthracenylmethyl modified non-fluorescent derivatives of fluorescein and rhodamine-6G can reacts with O-1(2), which resulted in C-C bond cleavage that detach anthracene unit from the fluorophores resulting in strong fluorescence enhancement. These probes exhibit high selectivity and sensitivity in detection and imaging of O-1(2) in chemical and in living cells. Our approach makes it simple and flexible for development of reaction-based O-1(2) fluorescent probes for broad application in chemical, biomedical, and environmental sciences.