ATP-triggered highly sensitive probes for super-resolution mitochondrial imaging and low-dose bioimaging.

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP), mainly produced in mitochondria, plays an important role in various pathological processes such as inflammation and acute liver injury. Fluorescence imaging is a powerful tool for imaging tissue structure and function in vivo . To date, the lack of biocompatible ATP probes with bright fluorescence emission has hindered their application in basic research and clinical trials. Here, we report a method for preparing ATP probes using a ZIF-90 potting dye, which produces bright ATP probes by encapsulating a modified high fluorescence quantum yield dye into a ZIF-90 skeleton. The nanoprobe does not fluoresce due to the coating. ATP can cooperate with Zn 2+ to decompose the nanoprobe structure, release the dye and restore the fluorescence. Both nanoprobes ORhBSO 2 @ZIF-90 and SiRhBSO 2 @ZIF-90 showed higher sensitivity than the reported ATP nanoprobes with detection limits of 7.56 μM and 6.6 μM, and with lower doses (10 μg mL -1 ) of probes for cell imaging. In addition, SiRhBSO 2 @ZIF-90 has also been successfully used in the liver injury model. The ZIF-90 encapsulation strategy can retain the high fluorescence quantum yield and improve the biocompatibility of the dye.