New Ca2+ fluoroionophores based on the BODIPY fluorophore

Calcium (Ca(2+)) fluoroionophores are useful in cell-based functional assays of G-protein coupled receptor (GPCR) activation or ion channel modulation. In this paper we describe new calcium probes that improve or overcome certain deficiencies in existing probes. These new fluoroionophores are based on acylation of amino-BAPTA [BAPTA = glycine, N,N'-(1,2-ethanediyl-bis(oxy-2,1-phenylene)) bis(N-(carboxymethyl))] with fluorescent BODIPY(R) propionates [BODIPY = 4,4-difluoro-5,7-dimethyl- 4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene]. The resulting probes show high affinity to aqueous calcium solutions, and respond to calcium binding with significant fluorescence increases. The BODIPY fluorophores are uncharged and their fluorescence is pH-insensitive. The wide range of excitation/emission wavelength choices available within the BODIPY fluorophore series allows several different colors of new calcium indicators to be prepared. Cell permeable versions respond well with increasing fluorescence intensities in live cells after calcium influx.     

Phthalide-derived novel fluoroionophores incorporating picolylamino receptors: synthesis and response to metal cations

Phthalide derivatives incorporating mono- and di-picolylamino functionalities at the 6-position have been prepared as novel fluoroionophores and their fluorescence responses to metal cations have been investigated. These phthalides not only exhibited efficient fluorescence in an aqueous medium but also displayed fluorescence on-off response upon addition of transition-metal cations, namely Cu(2+). The 6-aminophthalide fluorophore served as the core of the fluorescent probes although it has rarely been applied to a chemosensor. To the best of our knowledge, these modified phthalides are the first 6-aminophthalide-derived fluorometric probes for metal cations, namely Cu(2+).     

Design of bisquinolinyl malonamides as Zn2+ ion-selective fluoroionophores based on the substituent effect

A series of malonamides possessing two quinoline moieties were synthesized and characterized as fluoroionophores for the Zn²⁺ ion. We focused on the relationship between the substituents introduced to the C2-position of the malonamides and their Zn²⁺ ion-selectivity, exploiting the structural effect of the substituents in the design of the fluoroionophores with high selectivity. The substituents introduced to the malonamides were the methyl, benzyl and naphthalenylmethyl groups. In dimethyl sulfoxide solvent, all substituted bisquinolinyl malonamides showed excellent fluorescence sensing for the Zn²⁺ ion, while unsubstituted bisquinolinyl malonamide 1 displayed ratiometric sensing for the Co²⁺ ion. N,N′-Bis(8-quinolyl)-2-methyl-2-naphthalenylmethyl malonamide 4 exhibited the highest Zn²⁺ ion-selectivity against the Cd²⁺ ion. Although the substituents introduced into the C2-position are spatially distant from the quinoline recognition moiety, this study indicated that they greatly influenced the ion selectivities of the bisquinolinyl malonamides. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that visible fluorescence analyses could be performed on malonamide 4.     

Click synthesized dianthryl-TTFV: an efficient fluorescent turn-on probe for transition metal ions

Tetrathiafulvalene vinylogue (TTFV) was functionalized with two anthryl fluorophores via Cu(I)-catalyzed alkyne-azide [3 + 2] cycloaddition, forming a dianthryl-TTFV hybrid to show fluorescent turn-on sensing behaviour for Cu(2+), Fe(2+), and Cd(2+) ions in THF with remarkably low detection limit down to the sub-ppm level.     

8-羟基喹啉衍生物对某些阴离子的双重光谱响应

本文以5-甲酰基-8-羟基喹啉(5M8Q)作为阴离子识别探针,通过紫外、荧光等光谱仪考察其对阴离子识别作用。实验显示:在乙腈溶液中5M8Q对F-、CH3COO-和H2PO4-等阴离子有灵敏的识别作用:F-、CH3COO-和H2PO4-可诱导5M8Q吸收光谱红移,吸收峰位置由322nm红移至400nm。当F-、CH3COO-和H2PO4-浓度为5M8Q两倍当量时,5M8Q荧光显著增强且分别增强至103、60和13倍。结果表明:5M8Q对F-、CH3COO-和H2PO4-有灵敏的双重光谱响应,并且表现出荧光增强型识别性质。     

基于碳点荧光恢复法测定生物巯基化合物

碳点(CDots)是一种新型荧光纳米材料,Cu2+可以有效猝灭其荧光;而当有生物巯基化合物存在时,碳点-Cu2+体系的荧光可以恢复.基于此原理,我们成功地构建了检测生物体内总巯基化合物的新方法.该方法具有很好的选择性,常见氨基酸和金属离子对谷胱甘肽(GSH)、半胱氨酸(Cys)和高半胱氨酸(Hcy)的检测无影响.最佳实验条件下,谷胱甘肽、半胱氨酸、高半胱氨酸的浓度在6.0×10-6mol/L～1.0×10-4mol/L与相对荧光强度呈线性,R>0.996,检出限为2.0×10-6mol/L.该体系成功用于血清样品中总巯基化合物的检测.     

A highly selective pyrophosphate sensor based on ESIPT turn-on in water

Pyrophosphate (PPi) is a biologically important target. A binuclear system 3?2Zn is found to selectively recognize PPi, leading to a ratiometric fluorescent sensor at pH 7.4 in water. The binding event triggered a large fluorescence response (～100 nm bathochromic shift) by turning on the excited state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT). Detection of PPi released from a PCR experiment indicated that this new probe could be a useful tool in bioanalytical applications.     

A novel Cr turn-on probe based on naphthalimide and BINOL framework

Naphthalimide and BINOL framework based fluorescent probe NP-B was rationally designed and synthesized. NP-B exhibited ‘turn-on’ fluorescence for Cr³⁺ and high selectivity over other metal ions. 1:1 binding mode between NP-B and Cr³⁺ was proposed and the mode was verified through MALDI-TOF mass spectrum. The detection limit was calculated to be 0.20 μM, which indicated the good sensitivity for Cr³⁺.     

Cytotoxicity of metal 8-quinolinethiolates

High cytotoxicity has been established for the 8-quinolinethiolates of copper, cadmium, indium, antimony, bismuth, ruthenium, rhodium, palladium, osmium, iridium, and platinum on HT-1080 (human fibrosarcoma), MG-22A (mouse hepatoma), and B-16 (mouse melanoma) tumor cells. The greatest activity against HT-1080 was possessed by the iridium complex, and against MG-22A by the osmium complex. All the investigated metal 8-quinolinethiolates were highly toxic in relation to NIH 3T3 normal mouse embryo fibroblasts. __________ Translated from Khimiya Geterotsiklicheskikh Soedinenii, No. 6, pp. 870–873, June, 2006.     

Sensitive turn-on fluorescent detection of tartrazine based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer

We introduce a sensitive, rapid, label-free and general fluorescent method for the determination of tartrazine by competitive binding to reduced graphene oxide (rGO) against fluorescein, and the fluorescence recovery upon fluorescein desorption from rGO provides a quantitative readout for tartrazine, giving a detection limit of 0.53 ng mL(-1).     

Aptamer-mediated turn-on fluorescence assay for prion protein based on guanine quenched fluophor

An aptamer-participated haprin structure was designed by employing cellular prion protein (PrP^C) as a model protein, and thus an aptamer-mediated turn-on fluorescence assay for proteins was developed in this contribution. The designed aptamer-participated haprin structure consists of three segments. Namely, an aptamer sequence located in the loop, three guanine bases at 3′-terminal, and a fluophor modified at 5′-terminal. It was found that the guanine bases at the 3′-terminal could quench the fluorescence of the fluophor such as tetramethyl-6-carboxyrhodamine (TAMRA) at the 5′-terminal about 76.6% via electron transfer if the guanine bases are close enough to the fluophor, and the quenched fluorescence could get restored when the target protein is present since the interaction, which could be confirmed by measuring fluorescence lifetime, between TAMRA-aptamer and the target protein forces the guanines away from TAMRA so that TAMRA-modified aptamer changes into turn-on state. A linear relationship was then constructed between the turn-on fluorescence intensity and the concentration of PrP^C in the range from 1.1 to 44.7 μg/mL with a limit of detection of 0.3 μg/mL (3σ).     

Rapid, photoactivatable turn-on fluorescent probes based on an intramolecular photoclick reaction

Photoactivatable fluorescent probes are invaluable tools for the study of biological processes with high resolution in space and time. Numerous strategies have been developed in generating photoactivatable fluorescent probes, most of which rely on the photo-"uncaging" and photoisomerization reactions. To broaden photoactivation modalities, here we report a new strategy in which the fluorophore is generated in situ through an intramolecular tetrazole-alkene cycloaddition reaction ("photoclick chemistry"). By conjugating a specific microtubule-binding taxoid core to the tetrazole/alkene prefluorophores, robust photoactivatable fluorescent probes were obtained with fast photoactivation (～1 min) and high fluorescence turn-on ratio (up to 112-fold) in acetonitrile/PBS (1:1). Highly efficient photoactivation of the taxoid-tetrazoles inside the mammalian cells was also observed under a confocal fluorescence microscope when the treated cells were exposed to either a metal halide lamp light passing through a 300/395 filter or a 405 nm laser beam. Furthermore, a spatially controlled fluorescent labeling of microtubules in live CHO cells was demonstrated with a long-wavelength photoactivatable taxoid-tetrazole probe. Because of its modular design and tunability of the photoactivation efficiency and photophysical properties, this intramolecular photoclick reaction based approach should provide a versatile platform for designing photoactivatable fluorescent probes for various biological processes.     

Sensitive turn-on fluorescent detection of melamine based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer

We here report a novel fluorescent method for the detection of melamine based on the high fluorescence quenching ability of gold nanoparticles. The fluorescence was significantly quenched via fluorescence resonance energy transfer when fluorescein molecules were attached to the surface of gold nanoparticles by electrostatic interaction. Upon addition of melamine, the fluorescence was enhanced due to the competitive adsorption of gold nanoparticles between melamine and fluorescein. Under the optimum conditions, the fluorescence enhancement efficiency [(I-I(0))/I(0)] showed a linear relationship with the concentration of melamine in the range of 1.0 × 10(-7) mol L(-1)~4.0 × 10(-6) mol L(-1), and the detection limit was calculated to be 1.0 × 10(-9) mol L(-1). The proposed method showed several advantages such as high sensitivity, short analysis time, low cost and ease of operation.     

Nitric oxide turn-on fluorescent probe based on deamination of aromatic primary monoamines

The stable, water-soluble, and nonfluorescent FA-OMe can sense nitric oxide (NO) and form the intensely fluorescent product dA-FA-OMe via reductive deamination of the aromatic primary amine. The reaction is accompanied by a notable increase of the fluorescent quantum yield from 1.5 to 88.8%. The deamination mechanism of FA-OMe with NO was proposed in this study. The turn-on fluorescence signals were performed by suppression of photoinduced electron transfer (PeT), which was demonstrated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the components forming FA-OMe and dA-FA-OMe. Furthermore, FA-OMe showed water solubility and good stability at physiological pHs. Moreover, the selectivity study indicated that FA-OMe had high specificity for NO over other reactive oxygen/nitrogen species. In an endogenously generated NO detection study, increasing the incubation time of FA-OMe with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) pretreated Raw 264.7 murine macrophages could cause an enhanced fluorescence intensity image. In addition, a diffusion/localization cell imaging study showed that FA-OMe could be trapped in Raw 264.7 cells. These cell imaging results demonstrated that FA-OMe could be used as a turn-on fluorescent sensor for the detection of endogenously generated NO.     

Synthesis and luminescence of polymeric metal complexes based on 1,10-phenanthroline and 8-hydroxyquinoline

A ligand containing different coordination groups, 5-([1,10]phenanthroline-[4,5-f]imidazo-2-yl)-8-hydroxyquinoline (PhenI8Q) has been synthesized and two corresponding polymeric metal complexes Cu(II) (1) and Zn(II) (2) were prepared by coordination polymerization of the ligand with copper(II) and zinc(II) halides, respectively. The ligand was characterized by ¹H-NMR, ¹³C-NMR, and Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) and its corresponding polymeric metal complexes 1 and 2 were characterized by FT-IR, UV-Vis, elemental analysis, thermal gravimetric analysis, and conductivity measurements. The absorption spectra and luminescence of the ligand, 1, and 2 were investigated by UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy at room temperature. Compared with the ligand, the fluorescence spectra of the polymeric metal complexes exhibit blue shifts in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) solution and bathochromic shifts in the solid state. Complexes 1 and 2 emit blue light with emission maximum (λ _{f max}) at 449 and 431 nm in DMSO solution and at 485 and 484 nm in the solid state, respectively.     

Cu2+-selective turn-on fluorescence signaling based on metal-induced hydrolysis of pyrenecarbohydrazide

We developed a simple Cu²⁺-selective turn-on fluorescence signaling probe based on the hydrolysis of 1-pyrenecarbohydrazide (1) to 1-pyrenecarboxylic acid. Probe 1 exhibited prominent fluorescence signaling of Cu²⁺ ions in a 10% aqueous Tris-buffered (pH 7.0) DMSO solution with a detection limit of 5.93 × 10^?8 M. Signaling with control compounds derived from pyreneacetic acid and pyrenebutyric acid showed that the fluorescence signal became less pronounced as the distance between the hydrazide functionality and the pyrene fluorophore increased. As a practical application, this probe was employed for the determination of Cu²⁺ in a simulated semiconductor wastewater.     

A "turn-on" fluorescent Hg2+ chemosensor based on Ferrier carbocyclization

A "turn-on" fluorescent chemosensor with excellent selectivity and satisfactory sensitivity on Hg(2+) detection in 100% water media has been established employing a carbohydrate based Ferrier carbocyclization reaction. The probe has also presented satisfactory results for the imaging of Hg(2+) ions in cells and organisms.     

A colorimetric and fluorescent turn-on chemosensor for Zn based on an azobenzene-containing compound

This paper presents a new colorimetric reversible fluorescent turn-on chemosensor molecule for zinc ion based on an azobenzene derivative. The basal fluorescence intensity of the chemosensor molecule is little affected under physiological pH 5-9, whilst the excitation (507 nm) and emission (610 nm) wavelength of the molecular probe for zinc ion is in the visible range.     

Hypochlorous acid turn-on boron dipyrromethene probe based on oxidation of methyl phenyl sulfide

A boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based fluorometric probe, HCS, has been successfully developed for the highly sensitive and selective detection of hypochlorous acid (HOCl). The probe is based on the specific HOCl-promoted oxidation of methyl phenyl sulfide. The reaction is accompanied by a 160-fold increase in the fluorescent quantum yield (from 0.003 to 0.480). The fluorescent turn-on mechanism is accomplished by suppression of photoinduced electron transfer (PET) from the methyl phenyl sulfide group to BODIPY. The fluorescence intensity of the reaction between HOCl and HCS shows a good linearity in the HOCl concentration range 1–10 μM. The detection limit is 23.7 nM (S/N = 3). In addition, confocal fluorescence microscopy imaging using RAW264.7 macrophages demonstrates that the HCS probe could be an efficient fluorescent detector for HOCl in living cells.     

Fluorescence based turn-on strategy for determination of microRNA-155 using DNA-templated copper nanoclusters

The authors report on a new approach for the determination of the breast cancer biomarker microRNA-155 (miRNA-155). It is based on the measurement of the fluorescence shift of oligonucleotide-templated copper nanoclusters (DNA-CuNC). A probe DNA was designed that acts as a template for the preparation of CuNC which, under 400 nm excitation, exhibit strong fluorescence enhancement at 490 nm and a 90 nm Stokes shift after binding to target miRNA-155 and formation of a DNA-RNA heteroduplex. Under the optimal conditions, the fluorescence of the DNA-CuNC increases with increasing concentration of miRNA-155 in the range from 50 pM to 10 nM, with a 11 pM detection limit. The assay has excellent selectivity over noncomplementary RNA. The method was applied to the determination of miRNA-155 in the presence of human plasma and saliva.

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Graphical abstract Schematic of the detection strategy that relies on the fluorescence shift of DNA-CuNCs resulting from the specific binding of DNA-CuNCs with target miRNA-155. Fluorescence intensities are linearly proportional to the concentrations of target RNA from 50 pM to 10 nM.