A Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe Based on a Through‐Bond Energy Transfer (TBET) System for Imaging HOCl in Living Cells

A simple ratiometric probe (Naph‐Rh) has been designed and synthesized based on a through‐bond energy transfer (TBET) system for sensing HOCl. In this probe, rhodamine thiohydrazide and naphthalene formyl were connected by simple synthesis methods to construct a structure of monothio‐bishydrazide. Free probe Naph‐Rh showed only the emission of naphthalene. When probe Naph‐Rh reacted with HOCl, monothio‐bishydrazide could be converted into 1,2,4‐oxadiazole, which not only ensured that the donor and the acceptor were connected with electronically conjugated bonds, but also resulted in the spiro‐ring opening and the emission of rhodamine. Therefore, a typical TBET process took place. The probe possessed high‐energy transfer efficiency and large pseudo‐Stokes shifts. As the first TBET probe for HOCl, Naph‐Rh showed excellent selectivity and sensitivity toward HOCl over other reactive oxygen species (ROS)/reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and could respond fast to a low concentration of HOCl in the real sample. In addition, the probe was suitable for imaging HOCl in living cells due to its real‐time response, excellent resolution, and reduced cytotoxicity.     

A Ratiometric Fluorescent Probe for Cisplatin: Investigating the Intracellular Reduction of Platinum(IV) Prodrug Complexes

The Pt^IV prodrug strategy has emerged as an excellent alternative to tackle the problems associated with conventional Pt^II drug therapy. However, there is a lack of tools to study how this new class of Pt^IV drugs are processed at the cellular level. Herein, we report the first ratiometric probe for cisplatin detection and use it to investigate Pt^IV anticancer complexes in biological systems. The probe was able to distinguish between cisplatin and its Pt^IV derivatives, allowing us to probe the intracellular reduction of Pt^IV prodrug complexes. The correlation between the amount of active Pt^II species available after intracellular reduction of Pt^IV complexes and their cytotoxicity and the role glutathione plays in the reduction of Pt^IV complexes were investigated.     

Facile Preparation of Mono‐, Di‐ and Mixed‐Carboxylato Platinum(IV) Complexes for Versatile Anticancer Prodrug Design

Facile strategies were developed for the versatile functionalization of platinum(IV) axial sites, allowing for easy accessibility to unsymmetric mono‐ and mixed‐carboxylato, as well as symmetric di‐substituted platinum(IV) complexes. The first method involves the direct oxidation and carboxylation of the platinum(II) center using an appropriate peroxide and the carboxylate of choice to firstly yield a monocarboxylato monohydroxido platinum(IV) complex. This platinum(IV) intermediate can undergo further carboxylation to give rise to a mixed‐carboxylato platinum(IV) complex. The second method involves the activation of the carboxylate of choice by a common carbodiimide coupling reagent, and its reaction with a dihydroxido platinum(IV) precursor to give the monocarboxylato platinum(IV) complex. Uronium salts can be employed to promote efficient dicarboxylation of the dihydroxido platinum(IV) precursor. Lastly, an axial azide pendant group was demonstrated to be suitable for orthogonal “click” conjugation reactions.     

Environment‐sensitive Fluorescent Turn‐on Chemical Probe for the Specific Detection of O‐Methylguanine‐DNA Methyltransferase (MGMT) in Living Cells

MGMT protein, which has been associated with resistance to antitumor alkylation drugs for many patients, is a very useful prognostic marker to provide a guide for therapeutic decisions. Considering the large number of cellular samples that have to be handled daily at the hospitals, it is thus important to develop a rapid and simple analytical method to distinguish MGMT activity in different types of cells. In this paper, we describe a MGMT‐activated fluorescence turn‐on probe for the rapid no‐wash imaging of MGMT in living cells. The probe consists of a specific MGMT suicide pseudosubstrate, O⁶‐benzyl‐guanine and an environment‐sensitive fluorophore, SBD. In the presence of MGMT, the enzyme transfers SBD to the protein active site where the hydrophobic surrounding causes the fluorophore to exhibit more than 50‐fold fluorescence enhancement. With this probe, bright fluorescence was observed for MGMT‐positive, Hela S3 and MCF‐7 cells, while MGMT‐deficient CHO cells displayed no fluorescence. We believe that this fluorescence activation probe design can also be extended to detect other transferases, for which there are still no effective methods to image them in living cells.     

Potent Anticancer Activity and Possible Low Toxicity of Platinum(II) Complexes with Functionalized 1,1‐Cyclobutanedicarboxylate as a Leaving Ligand

Two platinum(II) complexes, DN603 and DN604, were designed and prepared by using 3‐oxocyclobutane‐1,1‐dicarboxylate as a ligand. The compounds were prepared according to the concept that incorporation of a functionalized moiety in the leaving ligand that did not affect its coordination bonding to the metal atom would play a key role in the anticancer activity of the resulting platinum complex. The newly prepared compounds were found to show potent in vitro anticancer activity comparable to cisplatin and oxaliplatin; especially DN604, which exhibited low acute toxicity similar to carboplatin, and presented acceptable solubility and stability in water. Chemical and biological results indicated that the functionalized moiety, uncoordinated, led to potent anticancer activity and low apparent toxicity of the platinum complexes by affecting the kinetic properties of the compounds.     

Smart Poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) Containing Iridium(III) Complexes as Water‐Soluble Phosphorescent Probe for Sensing and Bioimaging of Homocysteine and Cysteine

Homocysteine (Hcy) and cysteine (Cys) are two important kinds of amino acids in human bodies. Herein, we synthesized an iridium(III) complex‐functionalized poly(N‐isopropylacrylamide) and its hydrogel, which could be used as the excellent phosphorescent bioprobe for sensing Hcy and Cys. Their detection can be realized in aqueous system through the variations in absorption and photoluminescence spectra. Furthermore, living cell imaging experiments demonstrate that the phosphorescent bioprobe is membrane permeable and can monitor the changes of Hcy and Cys within living cells. In addition, the probe is also thermoresponsive, and its photoluminescence intensified with increasing temperature. These results suggests that this bioprobe has promising application in biomedical fields.     

Dual Mechanism of an Intramolecular Charge Transfer (ICT)–FRET‐Based Fluorescent Probe for the Selective Detection of Hydrogen Peroxide

A dual‐mechanism intramolecular charge transfer (ICT)–FRET fluorescent probe for the selective detection of H₂O₂ in living cells has been designed and synthesized. This probe used a coumarin–naphthalimide hybrid as the FRET platform and a boronate moiety as the recognition group. Upon the addition of H₂O₂, the probe exhibited a redshifted (73 nm) fluorescence emission, and the ratio of fluorescence intensities at λ =558 and 485 nm (F ₅₅₈/F ₄₈₅) shifted notably (up to 100‐fold). Moreover, there was a good linearity (R ²=0.9911) between the ratio and concentration of H₂O₂ in the range of 0 to 60 μm , with a limit of detection of 0.28 μm (signal to noise ratio (S/N)=3). This probe could also detect enzymatically generated H₂O₂. Importantly, it could be used to visualize endogenous H₂O₂ produced by stimulation from epidermal growth factor.     

A Fluorescent Indicator for Imaging Lysosomal Zinc(II) with Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET)‐Enhanced Photostability and a Narrow Band of Emission

We demonstrate a strategy to transfer the zinc(II) sensitivity of a fluoroionophore with low photostability and a broad emission band to a bright and photostable fluorophore with a narrow emission band. The two fluorophores are covalently connected to afford an intramolecular Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) conjugate. The FRET donor in the conjugate is a zinc(II)‐sensitive arylvinylbipyridyl fluoroionophore, the absorption and emission of which undergo bathochromic shifts upon zinc(II) coordination. When the FRET donor is excited, efficient intramolecular energy transfer occurs to result in the emission of the acceptor boron dipyrromethene (4,4‐difluoro‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diaza‐s‐indacene or BODIPY) as a function of zinc(II) concentration. The broad emission band of the donor/zinc(II) complex is transformed into the strong, narrow emission band of the BODIPY acceptor in the FRET conjugates, which can be captured within the narrow emission window that is preferred for multicolor imaging experiments. In addition to competing with other nonradiative decay processes of the FRET donor, the rapid intramolecular FRET of the excited FRET‐conjugate molecule protects the donor fluorophore from photobleaching, thus enhancing the photostability of the indicator. FRET conjugates 3 and 4 contain aliphatic amino groups, which selectively target lysosomes in mammalian cells. This subcellular localization preference was verified by using confocal fluorescence microscopy, which also shows the zinc(II)‐enhanced emission of 3 and 4 in lysosomes. It was further shown using two‐color structured illumination microscopy (SIM), which is capable of extending the lateral resolution over the Abbe diffraction limit by a factor of two, that the morpholino‐functionalized compound 4 localizes in the interior of lysosomes, rather than anchoring on the lysosomal membranes, of live HeLa cells.     

Di‐ and Triphosphate Recognition and Sensing with Mono‐ and Dinuclear Fluorescent Zinc(II) Complexes: Clues for the Design of Selective Chemosensors for Anions in Aqueous Media

The synthesis of a new ligand (L1) containing two 1,4,7‐triazacyclononane ([9]aneN₃) moieties linked by a 4,5‐dimethylenacridine unit is reported. The binding and fluorescence sensing properties toward Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, and Pb²⁺ of L1 and receptor L2, composed of two [9]aneN₃ macrocycles bridged by a 6,6′′‐dimethylen‐2,2′:6′,2′′‐terpyridine unit, have been studied by coupling potentiometric, UV/Vis absorption, and emission measurements in aqueous media. Both receptors can selectively detect Zn²⁺ thanks to fluorescence emission enhancement upon metal binding. The analysis of the binding and sensing properties of the Zn²⁺ complexes toward inorganic anions revealed that the dinuclear Zn²⁺ complex of L1 selectively binds and senses the triphosphate anion (TP), whereas the mononuclear Zn²⁺ complex of L2 displays selective recognition of diphosphate (DP). Binding of TP or DP induces emission quenching of the Zn²⁺ complexes with L1 and L2, respectively. These results are exploited to discuss the role played by pH, number of coordinated metal cations, and binding ability of the bridging units in metal and/or anion coordination and sensing.     

Hydrothermal Preparation of a Series of Luminescent Cadmium(II) and Zinc(II) Coordination Complexes and Enhanced Real‐time Photo‐luminescent Sensing for Benzaldehyde

Two cadmium(II) and two zinc(II) coordination complexes with diverse structural motifs, [Cd₂(HL)I₃H₂O] · H₂O ( 1 ), [Cd₂(H₂L)₂(H₂O)₄] · 2SO₄ · 14H₂O ( 2 ), [Zn₃(L′)₂(H₂O)₆] · 4H₂O · 2(NO₃) ( 3 ), and [Zn₃L'₂(H₂O)₂Cl₂] · H₂O ( 4 ) [H₂L = 1,1‐bis(5‐(pyrid‐2‐yl)‐1,2,4‐triazol‐3‐yl)methane; H₂L′ = 1,1‐bis(5‐(pyrid‐2‐yl)‐1,2,4‐triazol‐3‐yl)methanone] were synthesized through a hydrothermal method. These coordination complexes were characterized by single‐crystal X‐ray diffraction, powder X‐ray diffraction (PXRD), FT‐IR spectroscopy, and photo‐luminescent experiments. Single crystal structural analysis revealed that 1 – 4 belong to polynuclear coordination compounds. PXRD analysis of 1 – 4 unambiguously confirmed the purity of the as‐synthesized coordination compounds. It is the first time to synthesize coordination compounds based on H₂L′, which reacted from the original material H₂L through in‐situ hydrothermal conditions. In addition, photo‐luminescent experiments revealed that 1 – 4 have real‐time sensing effects for benzaldehyde through fluorescence quenching. For 1 – 4 , the photo‐luminescent quenching effect for benzaldehyde was also compared and the coordination complexes 3 and 4 based on H₂L′ have higher photo‐luminescent quenching effect than compounds 1 and 2 .     

A Highly Selective Two‐Photon Fluorescent Probe for Detection of Cadmium(II) Based on Intramolecular Electron Transfer and its Imaging in Living Cells

A new quinoline‐based probe was designed that shows one‐photon ratiometric and two‐photon off–on changes upon detecting Cd²⁺. It exhibits fluorescence emission at 407 nm originating from quinoline groups in Tris‐HCl (25 mM , pH 7.40), H₂O/EtOH (8:2, v/v). Coordination with Cd²⁺ causes quenching of the emission at 407 nm and simultaneously yields a remarkable redshift of the emission maximum to 500 nm with an isoemissive point at 439 nm owing to an intramolecular charge‐transfer mechanism. Thus, dual‐emission ratiometric measurement with a large redshift (Δλ=93 nm) and significant changes in the ratio (F₅₀₀/F₄₃₉) of the emission intensity (R/R₀ up to 27) is established. Moreover, the sensor H₂L displays excellent selectivity response, high sensitive fluorescence enhancement, and strong binding ability to Cd²⁺. Coordination properties of H₂L towards Cd²⁺ were fully investigated by absorption/fluorescence spectroscopy, which indicated the formation of a 2:1 H₂L/Cd²⁺ complex. All complexes were characterized by X‐ray crystallography, and TD‐DFT calculations were performed to understand the origin of optical selectivity shown by H₂L. Two‐photon fluorescence microscopy experiments have demonstrated that H₂L could be used in live cells for the detection of Cd²⁺.     

Building‐Block Approach for the Straightforward Incorporation of a New FRET (Fluorescence‐Resonance‐Energy Transfer) System into Synthetic DNA

The synthesis of the two new phosphoramidites 5 and 8 bearing a carbostyril (=quinolin‐2(1H)‐one) chromophore used as donor entity in our recently developed new FRET (fluorescence‐resonance‐energy transfer) system is described (Schemes 1 and 2) The high stability of the chromophore to basic conditions enables the incorporation of the phosphoramidites directly into DNA during solid‐phase synthesis (Schemes 3 and 4). Since this is also possible for the (bathophenanthroline)ruthenium(II) complex used as acceptor (Scheme 4, Steps d and e), the whole labelling procedure to insert the FRET system into synthetic DNA is straightforward and represents a major improvement to our previous strategy.     

Synthesis,Characterization, and Reactivity of Cationic Palladium(II) and Platinum(II) Iodo Complexes Containing a Linear or a Tripodal Aminophosphine. The X‐Ray Crystal Structures of [Pd{HN(CH2CH2PPh2)2}I]I and [Pd3{N(CH2CH2PPh2}3)2I4]I2

The complexes [M(PNHP)I]I (PNHP = bis[2‐(diphenylphosphino)ethyl]amine; M = Pd ( 1 ), Pt ( 2 )) and [M(NP₃)I]I (NP₃ = tris[2‐(diphenylphosphino)ethyl]amine; M = Pd ( 3 ), Pt ( 4 )) were prepared by interaction of the appropriate aminophosphine in CH₂Cl₂ with aqueous solutions containing [MCl₄]^2— salts and NaI in a ratio 1:4. Complexes 2 and 3 form the polynuclear compounds [Pt₂(PNHP)₃]I₄ ( 2a ) and [Pd₃(NP₃)₂I₄]I₂ ( 3a ) in the presence of coordinating solvents such as the mixture CD₃OD/D₂O/DMSO‐d₆ and CH₂Cl₂/CH₃OH, respectively. Complex 1 consists of distorted square‐planar cations [Pd(PNHP)I]⁺ and iodide anions able to establish short N‐H···I interactions of 2.850Å. The aminophosphine adopts a boat conformation and is coordinated to palladium in a tridentate chelating fashion. The crystal structure for cations of 3a reveals the presence of two types of distorted square‐planar Pd^II atoms, PdNP₂I and trans‐PdP₂I₂, NP₃ acting as tridentate chelating and bridging ligand, respectively. On the basis of ³¹P {¹H} NMR data it has been shown that each distorted square‐planar Pt(II) centre of 2a contains one PNHP acting as tridentate chelating ligand with the other aminophosphine bridging the two metals via the P atoms. Complexes 3 and 4 were shown by ³¹P {¹H} NMR to have the metal atom bound to the three P atoms of NP₃ and one iodo ligand. Additions of AcCysSH and GSH to 4 result, by a ring‐opening process, in the formation of [Pt(NP₂PO)(SR)] (RS = Acys ( 4a ), GS ( 4b )) in which the ligand contains a dangling arm phosphine oxide group and the platinum atom achieves the four‐coordination involving the N atom of the aminophosphine. Compounds [Pt₂(PNHP)₃]Cl₄ ( 2a′ , 2a″ ), [PtAu(PNHP)₂I]I₂ ( 2b ), and [Pt(PNHP)(ONO₂)](NO₃) ( 2c ) were detected in some extent in solution by reaction of complex 2 with Au(tdg)Cl (tdg = thiodiglycol), AuI and excess AgNO₃, respectively. While 1 does not react with AuI, complex 3 affords the heterobimetallic complexes PdCu(NP₃)I₃ ( 5 ), PdAg₂(NP₃)I₄ ( 6 ) and PdAu(NP₃)I₃ ( 7 ) by interaction with the appropriate iodide M′I (M′ = Cu, Ag, Au) via a chelate ring‐opening.