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Endogenous formaldehyde responsive fluorescent probe for bioimaging

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Abstract

Formaldehyde (FA), as the simplest endogenous carbonyl molecule, participates in many biosynthesis and metabolism in living organisms, such as nucleotides and adenosine triphosphate (ATP). FA concentrations are sub-millimolar in the normal healthy body, but can rise significantly in a number of disease pathologies. As a result, detecting endogenous FA is critical for illness diagnosis and rehabilitation therapy monitoring. Recent studies have focused on the FA-responsive turn-on fluorescence probe, which has huge promise in the detection and visualization of FA in living cells and organisms, as well as exceptional use in disease diagnosis and therapeutic monitoring. This review summarizes the fluorescence luminescence mechanism and design concepts of FA fluorescent probes, as well as their recent applications in bioimaging and illness diagnostics. Additionally, this article indicates the present dilemma of FA-responsive fluorescent probe, including selectivity, specificity, and detection mode, which may provide references for the development of FA-responsive fluorescent probes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52173138), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (No. 2021CFB298), and Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province (No. ZR2021ME015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hubei Key Laboratory of Nanomedicine for Neurodegenerative Diseases, School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering & Life Science, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Ning-Bo Yi, Si-Yi Chen, Xiao-Xue Xu, Xin Li, Taolei Sun & Dong-Bing Cheng

  2. CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience Laboratory for Biological Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety, National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST), Beijing, 100190, China

    Ning-Bo Yi, Xing-Jie Hu, Hao Wang & Zeng-Ying Qiao

  3. Department of Biology and the School of Natural Sciences, Went Worth College, University of York, Heslington, York, YO105DD, UK

    Fei Wang

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  1. Ning-Bo Yi
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  2. Xing-Jie Hu
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  3. Fei Wang
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  4. Si-Yi Chen
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  5. Xiao-Xue Xu
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  6. Xin Li
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  7. Hao Wang
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  8. Taolei Sun
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  9. Zeng-Ying Qiao
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  10. Dong-Bing Cheng
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zeng-Ying Qiao or Dong-Bing Cheng.

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Yi, NB., Hu, XJ., Wang, F. et al. Endogenous formaldehyde responsive fluorescent probe for bioimaging. Nano Res. 16, 13029–13041 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5766-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5766-z

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