A red emitting fluorescent probe for sensitively monitoring hydrogen polysulfides in living cells and zebrafish

Abstract Hydrogen polysulfides (H 2 S n , n ≥ 2) is an important reactive sulfur species, which has been demonstrated to be more effective than H 2 S in some biological events. However, the studies focused on the chemical biology of H 2 S n are still at the initial stage. One critical barrier is the lack of effective tools for H 2 S n monitoring in biosystems. Here, we synthesized a red fluorescence probe PZC-S n to detect H 2 S n , which shows high sensitivity, good selectivity and low cytotoxicity. The red emission and large Stokes shift of PZC-S n facilitate the in vivo application, which was demonstrated by imaging exogenous and endogenous H 2 S n in living RAW 264.7 cells and zebrafish. The results imply that PZC-S n can be further used as a promising fluorescence probe in the study of H 2 S n -realted biological process.