A Novel Method for Detecting Nitric Oxide (NO) by Formation of Fluorescent Products Based on Cheletropic Spin Traps

Abstract

Selective reaction with NO provides fluorescent nitroxide radicals 2 from nonfluorescent o-quinodimethane derivatives of type 1 as a result of rearomatization. Intentional reduction of 2 to nonradical products with the intact fluorophore results in a strong increase in fluorescence intensity. The detection of low levels of nitric oxide, especially in biological systems, is thus possible.