Citation: Kairong Yang, Bingbing Zheng, Fapu Wu, Bijia Zhou, Lijun Li, Hu Xiong. H₂S-activated near-infrared fluorescent probe for detecting colon cancer and rapid fecal analysis[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(4): 111235. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111235 shu

H₂S-activated near-infrared fluorescent probe for detecting colon cancer and rapid fecal analysis

Kairong Yang ^a ,
Bingbing Zheng ^a ,
Fapu Wu ^a ,
Bijia Zhou ^a ,
Lijun Li ^{b, *,} ,
Hu Xiong ^{a, *,}

a.
Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition, Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
b.
National Engineering Research Center of Wheat and Corn Further Processing, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou 450001, China

lilijun@haut.edu.cn

xionghu@nankai.edu.cn

Received Date: 17 February 2025
Revised Date: 17 April 2025
Accepted Date: 18 April 2025
Available Online: 18 April 2025

Figures(5)

Colon cancer is one of the malignant tumors with high morbidity and mortality worldwide, and its etiology is closely related to high levels of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S). To date, H₂S-activated near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent (FL) probes with high tumor tropism are still scarce. In this work, we created a new NIR FL probes (Cy-DG) that enables colon cancer targeted imaging and rapid fecal optical analysis by introducing an H₂S-recognition moiety and two D-glucosamine fragments on the scaffold of QCy7. Cy-DG exhibits excellent properties, including specific "off-on" response toward H₂S, intense NIR emission at 703 nm, large Stokes shift (118 nm), and high sensitivity (limit of detection (LOD), 0.48 µmol/L). Notably, the presence of D-glucosamine allows Cy-DG to be preferentially taken up by cancer cells. After intravenous administration, Cy-DG was able to efficiently accumulate in a MC38 intestinal cancer model and sensitively detect endogenous H₂S in vivo, showing 5.94-fold higher fluorescence intensity in small tumors < 5 mm. Furthermore, Cy-DG was successfully used to detect H₂S in feces samples from colon cancer-bearing mice. We believe that Cy-DG has great potential as a powerful diagnostic tool for H₂S-related disorder and stool examinations in the future.
- Hydrogen sulfide,
- NIR fluorescent probe,
- Activatable,
- Colon cancer,
- Fecal analysis
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H₂S-activated near-infrared fluorescent probe for detecting colon cancer and rapid fecal analysis