Simultaneous Imaging of Ribonucleic Acid and Hydrogen Sulfide in Living Systems with Distinct Fluorescence Signals Using a Single Fluorescent Probe

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) are important genes and gaseous signal molecules in physiological environment. However, simultaneous investigation of distribution and interrelation of RNA and H2S in living systems is restricted by lack of functional molecular tools. To address this critical challenge, the development of TP-MIVC is described as the first paradigm of the probes that can concurrently report ribonucleic acid and hydrogen sulfide with distinct fluorescence signals in the cancer cells, zebrafish, and living animals. The advantageous features of the probe include high stability, low background fluorescence, high sensitivity, and two-photon imaging property. Significantly, regardless of normal mice or tumor mice, tumor tissues exhibit stronger fluorescence intensity than other organs. More interestingly, it is found that TP-MIVC is capable of distinguishing normal mice and tumor mice by in vivo imaging. This study may open a new pathway for distinguishing malignant and benign tumor by fluorescence imaging of RNA.