A novel Boranil-based turn-on fluorescent probe for imaging of biothiols in living cells

A Boranil-based turn-on fluorescent probe 1 was designed and synthesized for detecting biothiols. 1 exhibited remarkable fluorescence enhancement and blue fluorescence with a 365 nm UV lamp upon addition of biothiols. The fluorescence response was ascribed to thiol-induced the cleavage of DNBS group to yield a fluorescent product 2 by the absorption, fluorescence and ESI-MS spectra analysis. 1 exhibited rapid response (within 6 min), high selectivity and good sensitivity with the detection limit of 44.7 nM, 65.4 nM and 106.0 nM for Cys, GSH and Hcy, respectively. Moreover, 1 was successfully used for imaging of biothiols in living cells. •A novel Boranil-based turn-on fluorescent probe 1 for biothiols was developed.•The detection limit of 1 for Cys, GSH and Hcy were found to be 44.7 nM, 65.4 nM and 106.0 nM, respectively.•1 was successfully used for imaging of biothiols in living cells.