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Highlights • The probe exhibited good selectivity towards hydrogen polysulfide among other biological species. • The probe can detect hydrogen polysulfide within 10 min. • HQO-PSP has the ability of mitochondrial-targeting. • HQO-PSP can be applied not only at the level of living cells but also to mouse tissues. Abstract Hydrogen polysulfide (H 2 S n) has attracted increasing attention since H 2 S n instead of H 2 S has been shown to be the actual signaling molecule in physiological and pathological processes. Thus, developing accurate and sensitive assays for H 2 S n detection is urgently needed in biological science. In this work, we developed a red emitting mitochondria-targeting fluorescent probe, HQO-PSP, that is capable of tracking H 2 S n. With low cytotoxicity, good selectively and high sensitively, HQO-PSP was able to detect H 2 S n in living cells. Furthermore, we also demonstrated that HQO-PSP could also be successfully applied to recognize H 2 S n in living tissues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The probe exhibited good selectivity towards sulfur mustard. • The probe can detect sulfur mustard within 30 min. • A good linear relationship between fluorescence emission intensity and SM concentration. • SM-Flu can be applied not only at the level of living cells but also to whole animals. Sulfur mustard is a potent blister agent and one of the most harmful chemical warfare agents. To explore the toxicokinetics and biodistribution of SM, a reliable detection method for monitoring sulfur mustard would be indispensable. We describe the design, synthesis and application of a selective and sensitive turn-on fluorescent probe for sulfur mustard detection. A good linear relationship between fluorescence emission intensity and SM concentration was observed. The probe, SM-Flu, was applied to the determination and imaging of sulfur mustard in living cells and Aurelia coerulea polyps. With SM-Flu, concentration and time profiles for SM in mouse brain after exposure to SM were first measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NMU-1 showed excellent detection performance for nerve agent. And it was applied to develop a practical test paper that can detect various chemical warfare agents in this study. [Display omitted] • NMU-1 can detect nerve agent within 3 min. • NMU-1 exhibited good selectivity toward the nerve agent to various analytes. • The probe can be applied at the level of living cells. • NMU-1 was applied to develop a practical test paper that can detect various chemical warfare agents. Nerve agents are highly toxic chemical warfare agents that are easy to synthesize and have recently been applied many times in local wars and terrorist attacks. Fluorescent probes have been widely used in life science and medical research due to their features of short reaction time, high sensitivity and good selectivity. Herein, two fluorescent compounds, NMU-1 and NMU-2, were synthesized for the selective detection of nerve agents. NMU-1 exhibited good detection performance for nerve agents. With increasing nerve agent concentration, the fluorescence signal of NMU-1 at 498 nm gradually decreased with an excellent linear relationship. NMU-1 exhibited a low LOD (4.6 μM for DCP and 8.41 μM for soman), a rapid response (less than 3 min) and a large Stokes shift (98 nm) along with obvious color changes. Due to its high sensitivity and good selectivity, NMU-1 was successfully applied to image nerve agents in living PC12 cells. Furthermore, NMU-1 was used as a key element to develop chemical warfare agent test paper, which exhibited significant fluorescent changes under hand-held 365-nm UV light upon contact with nerve agents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]