Construction of a novel chitosan-based macromolecular nanoprobe for specific fluorescent detection of H 2 S in live animals.

H ₂ S is one of the signal molecules in live organisms and a poisonous gas, which is closely related to our life. The traditional synthetic small molecular organic probes often have the disadvantages of low biocompatibility. In this paper, a fluorescent nanoprobe for detecting H ₂ S in live organisms was constructed based on chitosan. The structure of CH-CN was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), XRD and scanning electron microscope (SEM). In the presence of Na ₂ S, the fluorescence intensity at 560 nm was significantly enhanced, and showed high selectivity and sensitivity toward H ₂ S. Based on the good fluorescence response of CH-CN, the probe was also successfully applied to H ₂ S imaging in HepG2 cells and zebrafish. These experimental results indicate that the probe has lower cytotoxicity and excellent stability. The present research shows a typical example of construction of chitosan-based macromolecular fluorescent materials and their bio-imaging application.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
(Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)