A triarylboron-based photosensitive fluorescence probe for imaging mitoDNA and lysophosphatidic acid in ovarian cancer cells with different signal emission

Ovarian cancer pose a serious threat to women's health, which overexpress lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) and possess high incidence of mitochondria DNA (mitoDNA) mutation. Herein, we construct two fluorescence probes, TAB-6-Me and TAB-2-Me, by functionlizing triarylboron structure with multiple pyridine positive ions. Among them, TAB-2-Me is a powerful probe because it can not only distinguish DNA and LPA from other negative substance but also demonstrate a 520 nm and 550 nm fluorescence signal readout for DNA and LPA, respectively. TAB-2-Me can also selectively distinguish ovarian cancer cells from other cells because it can show stronger fluorescence signal for ovarian cancer cells by combing with mitoDNA and LPA with different fluorescence signals. Moreover, TAB-2-Me posses high photosensitivity to selectively induce apoptosis of ovarian cancer cells in the presence of other cells under the irradiation of light with very low optical density (1.2 mW/cm2). Our probe may pave the way for achieving the integration of diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer.