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Specific fluorogenic probes for ozone in biological and atmospheric samples

Nature Chemistry volume 1, pages 316–321 (2009)Cite this article

An Erratum to this article was published on 01 May 2010

This article has been updated

Abstract

Ozone exposure is a growing global health problem, especially in urban areas. While ozone in the stratosphere protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet light, tropospheric or ground-level ozone is toxic and can damage the respiratory tract. It has recently been shown that ozone may be produced endogenously in inflammation and antibacterial responses of the immune system; however, these results have sparked controversy owing to the use of a non-specific colorimetric probe. Here we report the synthesis of fluorescent molecular probes able to unambiguously detect ozone in both biological and atmospheric samples. Unlike other ozone-detection methods, in which interference from different reactive oxygen species is often a problem, these probes are ozone specific. Such probes will prove useful for the study of ozone in environmental science and biology, and so possibly provide some insight into the role of ozone in cells.

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Figure 1: Indigo carmine (1) is a non-selective, colorimetric probe for ROS.
Figure 2: Synthesis and mechanistic design of ozone probe 4.
Figure 3: Ozone detection in aqueous and biological media.
Figure 4: Live-cell imaging of human bronchial epithelial cells in the presence of ozone using compound 8.
Figure 5: Conversion of 4 into 7 enables the detection of ozone in air samples.

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Change history

  • 10 March 2010

    In the version of this Article originally published, some of the images for the different parts in Fig. 4 were incorrectly placed. The correction has been made in the HTML and PDF versions of the Article. A Supplementary film was also missing online, this has now been uploaded.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge support from the US National Science Foundation (to K.K.) and the US National Institutes of Health (to C.M.S., B.R.P. and G.D.L). We thank Yang Gao for determining the specificity of compound 8 for ozone.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Pittsburgh, 219 Parkman Avenue, Pittsburgh, 15260, Pennsylvania, USA

    Amanda L. Garner, Shin Ando & Kazunori Koide

  2. Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, University of Pittsburgh, 100 Technology Drive, Pittsburgh, 15219, Pennsylvania, USA

    Claudette M. St Croix, Bruce R. Pitt & George D. Leikauf

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  1. Amanda L. Garner
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Contributions

A.L.G., C.M.S., B.R.P, G.D.L. and K.K. designed the experiments. A.L.G. generated the data shown in Figs 2,  3 and  5. C.M.S. generated the data shown in Fig. 4. S.A. synthesized and characterized compound 8. A.L.G., C.M.S. and K.K. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Kazunori Koide.

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Garner, A., St Croix, C., Pitt, B. et al. Specific fluorogenic probes for ozone in biological and atmospheric samples. Nature Chem 1, 316–321 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.240

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