Bioluminescent probe for detecting endogenous hypochlorite in living mice.

As a kind of biologically important reactive oxygen species (ROS), hypochlorite (ClO-) plays a crucial role in many physiological processes. As such, endogenous ClO- is a powerful antibacterial agent during pathogen invasion. Nonetheless, excessive endogenous ClO- could pose a health threat to mammalian animals including humans. However, the detection of endogenous ClO- by bioluminescence probes in vivo remains a considerable challenge. Herein, based on a caged strategy, we developed a turn-on bioluminescent probe 1 for the highly selective detection of ClO-in vitro and imaging endogenous ClO- in a mouse inflammation model. We anticipate that such a probe could help us understand the role of endogenous ClO- in a variety of physiological and pathological processes.