Spotlights on Recent JACS Publications

摘要

Hydrogen sulfide is getting an image makeover. Long viewed as a pollutant that gives rotten eggs their foul smell, the molecule now is appreciated as an important signal transmitter in biological systems, such as the cardiovascular, nervous, endocrine, immune, and gastrointestinal. However, an obstacle in studying the physiological roles of hydrogen sulfide has been the limited tools available for the sensitive, selective, and real-time detection of this molecule. Here, Michael Pluth and colleagues describe a fluorescent probe that is highly sensitive to biological hydrogen sulfide (DOI: 10.1021/jacs.5b04196). The probe, called MeRho-Az, selectively detects the molecule at a concentration as low as 86 nM. MeRho-Az's fluorescence increases over 1000-fold in the presence of hydrogen sulfide, making it one of the strongest known detectors of the molecule.