Development of a Highly Selective Two-Photon Probe for Methylglyoxal and its Applications in Living Cells, Tissues, and Zebrafish

Methylglyoxal (MGO) is one of the most important active carbonyl compounds in living organisms. It is a metabolic by product of glycolysis. MGO participates in glycosylation of proteins and nucleic acids to trigger carbonyl stress, inducing pathological status and even exacerbateing the development of chronic degenerative diseases. In order to study the diseases caused by MGO, it is meaningful for us to develop methods that could efficiently detect MGO. In our work, a new two-photon fluorescent turn-on probe which named NP has been designed which was made up of naphthalimides dye as the two-photon fluorescent platform and the o -phenylenediamine as recognition site. When reacted with MGO, NP showed excellent sensitivity and selectivity. Based on the two-photon fluorescence imaging technology, NP has firstly successful application in living cells, tissues and zebrafish to detecting MGO.