Sensitive and specific detection of peroxynitrite and imaging of inflammation by a "simple" AIE bioprobe

A luminogenic bioprobe TPE-DMAB for simple and specific detection of peroxynitrite (ONOO − ) has been developed. TPE-DMAB exhibits aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristic and shows fluorescence enhancement (up to 100-fold) upon cleavage of phenylboronic moieties by ONOO − . TPE-DMAB can be facilely synthesized and displays excellent specificity and sensitivity towards ONOO − (detection limit of 54 nM). Based on these novel properties of TPE-DMAB , we further produced its encapsulated nanoparticles and successfully used them to detect endogenous ONOO − in macrophage cells and visualize the inflammation sites of mice, verifying the great potential of TPE-DMAB for biological applications. A facile synthesized AIE bioprobe was developed to detect peroxynitrite sensitively and specifically. This bioprobe can realize both in vitro ONOO − detection and in vivo visualization of inflammation.