Pinkment: a synthetic platform for the development of fluorescent probes for diagnostic and theranostic applications

Reaction-based fluorescent-probes have proven successful for the visualisation of biological species in various cellular processes. Unfortunately, in order to tailor the design of a fluorescent probe to a specific application (i.e. organelle targeting, material and theranostic applications) often requires extensive synthetic efforts and the synthetic screening of a range of fluorophores to match the required synthetic needs. In this work, we have identified Pinkment-OH as a unique “plug-and-play” synthetic platform that can be used to develop a range of ONOO(−) responsive fluorescent probes for a variety of applications. These include theranostic-based applications and potential material-based/bioconjugation applications. The as prepared probes displayed an excellent sensitivity and selectivity for ONOO(−) over other ROS. In vitro studies using HeLa cells and RAW 264.7 macrophages demonstrated their ability to detect exogenously and endogenously produced ONOO(−). Evaluation in an LPS-induced inflammation mouse model illustrated the ability to monitor ONOO(−) production in acute inflammation. Lastly, theranostic-based probes enabled the simultaneous evaluation of indomethacin-based therapeutic effects combined with the visualisation of an inflammation biomarker in RAW 264.7 cells.