Design and synthesis of a new class of membrane-permeable triazaborolopyridinium fluorescent probes

A new class of fluorescent triazaborolopyridinium compounds was synthesized from hydrazones of 2-hydrazinylpyridine (HPY) and evaluated as potential dyes for live-cell imaging applications. The HPY dyes are small, their absorption/emission properties are tunable through variation of pyridyl or hydrazone substituents, and they offer favorable photophysical characteristics featuring large Stokes shifts and general insensitivity to solvent or pH. The stability, neutral charge, cell membrane permeability, and favorable relative influences on the water solubility of HPY conjugates are complementary to existing fluorescent dyes and offer advantages for the development of receptor-targeted small-molecule probes. This potential was assessed through the development of a new class of cysteine-derived HPY-conjugate imaging agents for the kinesin spindle protein (KSP) that is expressed in the cytoplasm during mitosis and is a promising chemotherapeutic target. Conjugates possessing the neutral HPY or charged Alexa Fluor dyes that function as potent, selective allosteric inhibitors of the KSP motor were compared using biochemical and cell-based phenotypic assays and live-cell imaging. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the HPY dye moiety as a component of probes for an intracellular protein target and highlight the importance of dye structure in determining the pathway of cell entry and the overall performance of small-molecule conjugates as imaging agents.     

2'-O-[2-(guanidinium)ethyl]-modified oligonucleotides: stabilizing effect on duplex and triplex structures

[structure: see text] Oligonucleotides with a novel 2'-O-[2-(guanidinium)ethyl] (2'-O-GE) modification have been synthesized using a novel protecting group strategy for the guanidinium group. This modification enhances the binding affinity of oligonucleotides to RNA as well as duplex DNA (DeltaT(m) 3.2 degrees C per modification). The 2'-O-GE modified oligonucleotides exhibited exceptional resistance to nuclease degradation. The crystal structure of a palindromic duplex formed by a DNA oligonucleotide with a single 2'-O-GE modification was solved at 1.16 A resolution.     

Synthesis,Spectral, and Structural Characterization of Bisthiocarbohydrazone Derivatives

Abstract

Bisthiocarbohydrazone derivatives of three heterocyclic ketone ligands, having a flexible coordination ability; 1, 5-bis (2-acetylthiophene) thiocarbohydrazone; 1, 5-bis (2-acetylfuran) thiocarbohydrazone; and 1, 5-bis (2-acetylpyrrole) thiocarbohydrazone were synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, UV-visible, FT-IR, cyclic voltammetry, and ¹H and ¹³C-NMR spectral studies. All bisthiocarbohydrazone exhibited the thioketone—thioenol tautomeric forms, as evidenced by IR spectral data and single crystal X-ray diffraction studies of 1, 5-bis (2-acetylfuran) thiocarbohydrazone and 1, 5–bis (2-acetylpyrrole) thiocarbohydrazone.

Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Phosphorus, Sulfer, and Silicon and the Related Elements for the following free supplemental files: Additional figures and tables.