Endogenous molecule-targeted fluorescent probes for ferroptosis visualization: Current progress and future prospects

Ferroptosis is a non-apoptotic form of programmed cell death, which is driven by excessive accumulation of lipid peroxides due to the disorder of intracellular metabolic pathway. Emerging evidences suggest that ferroptosis is involved in the regulation of various physiological and pathological processes. Thus, plenty of methods for detecting ferroptosis have been developed to clarify the execution mechanism of ferroptosis and estimate the efficacy of ferroptosis-based therapy. In particular, increasing endogenous molecule-targeted fluorescent probes for ferroptosis visualization have been developed in recent years, which greatly promoted the decryption of ferroptosis. In this work, we provide an overview of the latest development of fluorescent probes for detecting a variety of endogenous molecules during ferroptosis. We also discuss the existing shortcomings of these reported fluorescent probes and put forward some suggestions for future development, hoping to promote further investigation in this field.