A Hydrogen Peroxide Responsive Biotin-Guided Near-Infrared Hemicyanine-Based Fluorescent Probe for Early Cancer Diagnosis

H2O2 plays an important role in oxidative damage and redox signaling. Studies have shown that abnormal levels of H2O2 are closely related to the development of cancer. The levels of H2O2 in tumor cells are higher than in normal cells. Thus, it is of great importance to develop a fluorescent probe to monitor the level of H2O2 in vivo. This work reports a new biotin-guided NIR fluorescent probe, Bio-B-Cy, consisting of boronic acid ester as a H2O2-recognition site and biotin as a tumor binding site, which accelerates the fluorescence response to H2O2 in vivo. Bio-B-Cy exhibits good sensitivity and selectivity toward H2O2. In addition, Bio-B-Cy shows a dose-dependent response to H2O2 and the detection limit is 0.14 μM. We further demonstrate that Bio-B-Cy could successfully detect the H2O2 in biotin receptor-positive cancer cells and tumor tissues. Based on the results, Bio-B-Cy has the potential to serve as an efficient tool for early diagnosis of cancer.