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Recent Progress in the Development of Small Molecule-Based Fluorescent Probes for Oxidative Stress

  • Yusheng Fan,   
  • Yanlin Fu,   
  • Chunfei Bao,   
  • Yubin Ding *

Received: 30 Aug 2025 | Revised: 26 Sep 2025 | Accepted: 09 Oct 2025 | Published: 17 Oct 2025

Abstract

Oxidative stress, driven by overproduction of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, is implicated in numerous diseases. The precise detection of oxidative stress biomarkers is therefore crucial for understanding their biological roles. In this review, we intend to discuss recent advances in the development of fluorescent probes for detecting oxidative stress-related analytes. We specifically highlight the design strategies, sensing mechanisms, and performance of recently reported probes for hypochlorite and peroxynitrite, and other important ROS/RNS. The discussion is divided into four subtopics including fluorescent probes for hypochlorite, fluorescent probes for peroxynitrite, fluorescent probes for other oxidative stress species and fluorescent probes for multiple oxidative stress related analytes. Especially, we are interested in probes with multi-analyte responsive abilities, which are even capable of differentiating between multiple ROS/RNS. We propose that the comprehensive measurement of multiple biomarkers represents a critical future direction for this field. With a well-designed chemical structure, these probes are not just analytical tools. They are translational bridges that transform our understanding of oxidative stress into actionable clinical insights for earlier diagnosis, mechanistic understanding, and therapeutic monitoring.

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Fan, Y.; Fu, Y.; Bao, C.; Ding, Y. Recent Progress in the Development of Small Molecule-Based Fluorescent Probes for Oxidative Stress. PhotoScience Advances 2025, 1 (1), 3.
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