Synergistically activated dual-locked fluorescent probes to monitor H2S-induced DNA damage.

Naphthalimide-based fluorescent probes (NAN0-N3 and NAN6-N3) were developed with dual locked fluorescence. Here, ≥1.9 × 10-2 mM of H2S and ≥2.2 × 10-2 μg mL-1 of DNA could unlock a highly sensitive off-on fluorescence response through synergistic changes of the molecular structure and conformation. As such, the probes could monitor DNA damage induced by the overexpression of H2S, and were able to evaluate the degree of apoptosis of living cells mediated by H2S-induced mtDNA or nDNA damage.