Hydrogen sulfide activatable NIR-II fluorescent probe for highly specific imaging of breast cancer

Breast cancer has the highest incidence rate and one of the highest mortality rates for malignant tumors in women. Early detection of breast cancer is essential to improve patient survival and quality of life. To this end, the present study sought to develop a second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorescent probe (BP-A) to detect breast cancer by monitoring the concentration changes of H2S, whose intracellular levels are closely related to both the proliferation and death of breast cancer cells. BP-A exhibited a large Stokes shift, fast response time, and excellent NIR-II emission at 1032 nm, and was able to sensitively and specifically detect exogenous and endogenous H2S in living mice. BP-A also displayed strong NIR-II fluorescence in tumor-bearing mice and no fluorescence in healthy mice, exhibiting excellent ability to distinguish between healthy mice and those with breast cancer. Thus, the probe developed in this study represents a promising and powerful tool for the early clinical detection of breast cancer.