A novel fluorescent turn-on probe for imaging biothiols based on SNAr substitution-skeletal rearrangement strategyElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Synthetic procedures and characterization of compound 2 and additional spectroscopic data. See DOI: 10.1039/c8ay02413h

A novel fluorescent turn-on probe 2 not only exhibited dramatic fluorescence enhancement by quinoline-to-quinolinone transformation, but also showed high sensitivity in the order Cys > GSH > Hcy. Importantly, 2 was successfully applied for imaging of biothiols in living cells. 2 is a novel fluorescent turn-on probe for imaging biothiols based on S N Ar substitution-skeletal rearrangement strategy with dramatic fluorescence enhancement and high sensitivity.