Coumarin-based fluorescence turn-on probes for high selectivity peroxynitrite detection and imaging in living cells and γ-carrageenan-induced inflammatory tissue and mice

[Display omitted] •Coumarin-based fluorescence turn-on probes CMONOO1 and CMONOO2 were constructed for ONOO– detecting.•CMONOO1 and CMONOO2 have excellent detection limits as low as 23.3 nM and 21.4 nM, respectively.•CMONOO2 was applied for ONOO– image in living cells, inflammatory tissues, and mice with satisfactory results. Peroxynitrite anion (ONOO–), a type of reactive nitrogen species (RNS), profoundly implicated in the physiological and pathological processes of a series of oxidative stress-related diseases. Thus, construction of reliable tools to track peroxynitrite (ONOO–) in biosystems is urgently desired. In this work, based-on D-π-d-structure of coumarin derivative and 2-(4-nitrophenyl)-2-oxoacetamide (also served as the fluorescence quencher) as flourophore and response group, respectively, two fluorescence turn-on probes CMONOO1 and CMONOO2 were constructed for rapidly detection and imaging of ONOO– in living cells, and inflammatory tissues and mice. These two probes had fast response time for ONOO– (∼60 s), and exhibited highly selectivity and sensitivity detection performance for ONOO– over other ROS and RNS. Also they had excellent detection limits in the ranges of 0–1.0 μM as low as 23.3 nM and 21.4 nM respectively. In addition, both probes have markedly biocompatibility, which could be beneficial to the imaging analysis of ONOO– in living biosystems. Therefore, CMONOO2 was selected as a representative for ONOO– imaging analysis in living cells, and inflammatory tissues and mice with satisfactory results, demonstrating these two robust probes have great potential to further elucidate ONOO–-related diseases.