Antiphotobleaching: A Type of Structurally Rigid Chromophore Ready for Constructing Highly Luminescent and Highly Photostable Europium Complexes

Antiphotobleaching is a critical challenge in the field of luminescent lanthanide complexes (LLCs) as well as in many disciplines concerning organic luminescent processes. In this work, a type of structurally rigid organic ligand, 4‐hydroxy‐1,5‐naphthyridine (ND), is developed, which can not only efficiently sensitize the europium emission but also demonstrate unique photostability. A series of ND derivatives with different substituent groups are synthesized and their singlet and triplet excited state energy levels are systematically investigated. Photophysical characterizations of the corresponding europium complexes reveal that the sensitization efficiencies (η_sens) are close to 100% and the total photoluminescence quantum yields can reach up to 84%. Most importantly, these structurally rigid luminescent europium complexes exhibit outstanding photostability and thermostability. Unlike the widely used β‐diketone complexes that are easily photodegraded, ND‐based chelates show no obvious degradation during the UV aging test (10 W m^?2 340 nm Ultraviolet A irradiation) within 200 h. Such superior UV resistance is even better than that of the famous compound tris(8‐hydroxyquinolate)aluminum (Alq₃). Possible reasons are discussed and a general rule for designing photostable LLCs is proposed. Such a chromophore is very promising for introducing luminescent materials with good photostability in potential application in many disciplines.     

竹红菌素光学特性分析

研究了新一代光敏剂竹红菌素(HA)在含10%人血清生理盐水中的吸收光谱,并与HA在有机溶剂中的吸收光谱进行比较.结果表明,HA在含10%人血清生理盐水中的索瑞吸收峰发生了二十几个纳米的红移,揭示了光敏剂HA在近似体内环境下光吸收的红移现象,为光动力治疗光源的选择提供了参考依据.此外,研究了HA的光漂白特性,指出了HA的光漂白规律,且通过指数拟和得出HA的光漂白半衰期约为4小时,为临床治疗条件的选择提供了重要参考数据.     

Two‐Photon Pattern Bleaching for Characterizing Structural Changes in Polymer Films

Using two‐photon absorption, an array of spots in a dye‐doped polymer film can be bleached, creating a three‐dimensional structure that can be imaged with two‐photon or confocal microscopy. Microscopic deformations resulting from various treatments to the film can be characterized, for example, swelling or shrinking. This technique is demonstrated on dye‐doped poly(vinyl alcohol), in which the effect of swelling with the addition of water to the film is shown.

     

Myosin head rotation in muscle fibers measured using polarized fluorescence photobleaching recovery

The technique of polarized fluorescence photobleaching recovery (PFPR) has been applied for the first time to investigation of the rotational correlation time of the myosin head in muscle fibers. This is a novel application of PFPR because it is the first time PFPR has been applied to a sample which is not cylindrically symmetric about the optical axis. Therefore we present a method for analysis of PFPR results from an oriented sample such as the muscle fibers aligned perpendicularly to the optical axis used here. Control experiments performed on fluorescently labeled myosin heads in solution demonstrate that, under some conditions, our PFPR apparatus can easily measure a rotational correlation time of less than 200 s. Validity of this application of PFPR to muscle fibers is provided by the agreement of our results with published results from a variety of other spectroscopic techniques. In particular, using glycerinated rabbit psoas muscle fibers, we find that for relaxed fibers and isometrically contracting fibers, the myosin heads undergo high-amplitude rotations on the submillisecond time domain. For fibers in rigor the myosin heads are highly oriented and nearly immobile. For fibers in ADP the myosin heads are highly ordered in a distribution quite different from that in rigor, and they are slightly more mobile than in rigor.     

核/壳型CdTe@SiO2荧光纳米复合粒子的制备与表征

利用反相微乳法, 以巯基乙酸修饰的水溶性CdTe量子点为核, 包覆SiO₂, 制备得到核壳型CdTe@SiO₂荧光纳米复合粒子. 用紫外-可见(UV-vis)分光光度计, 荧光(PL)分光光度计, 红外(FT-IR)光谱仪, 透射电子显微镜(TEM)等分析测试手段, 对得到的荧光纳米复合粒子的性能进行表征, 结果表明: 得到的CdTe@SiO₂纳米复合粒子是核壳型结构, 由SiO₂壳层包覆多个量子点, 其大小均匀, 水溶性好, 有效地提高了量子点的稳定性, 大大增强了其抗光漂白性能, 为该材料的进一步生物应用打下了良好的基础.     

Circumvention of fluorophore photobleaching in fluorescence fluctuation experiments: a beam scanning approach.

Photobleaching is a fluorophore-damaging process that commonly afflicts single-molecule fluorescence studies. It becomes an especially severe problem in fluorescence fluctuation experiments when studying slowly diffusing particles. One way to circumvent this problem is to use beam scanning to decrease the residence time of the fluorophores in the excitation volume. We report a systematic study of the effects of circular beam scanning on the photobleaching of fluorescent particles as observed in single-photon excitation fluorescence fluctuation experiments. We start by deriving a simple expression relating the average detected fluorescence to the photobleaching cross section of the fluorophores. We then perform numerical calculations of the spatial distribution of fluorescent particles in order to understand under which conditions beam scanning can prevent the formation of a photobleaching hole. To support these predictions, we show experimental results obtained for large unilamellar vesicles containing a small amount of the fluorescent lipophilic tracer DiD. We establish the required scanning radius and frequency range in order to obtain sufficient reduction of the photobleaching effect for that system. From the detected increase in fluorescence upon increase in scanning speed, we estimate the photobleaching cross section of DiD.     

Bleaching-resistant,Near-continuous Single-molecule Fluorescence and FRET Based on Fluorogenic and Transient DNA Binding

Photobleaching of fluorescent probes limits the observation span of typical single-molecule fluorescence measurements and hinders observation of dynamics at long timescales. Here, we present a general strategy to circumvent photobleaching by replenishing fluorescent probes via transient binding of fluorogenic DNAs to complementary DNA strands attached to a target molecule. Our strategy allows observation of near-continuous single-molecule fluorescence for more than an hour, a timescale two orders of magnitude longer than the typical photobleaching time of single fluorophores under our conditions. Using two orthogonal sequences, we show that our method is adaptable to Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) and that can be used to study the conformational dynamics of dynamic structures, such as DNA Holliday junctions, for extended periods. By adjusting the temporal resolution and observation span, our approach enables capturing the conformational dynamics of proteins and nucleic acids over a wide range of timescales.     

Comparative Photostability Studies of BODIPY and Fluorescein Dyes by Using Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy

In single‐molecule applications, the photostability of fluorescent molecules is a key parameter. We apply fluorescence correlation spectroscopy to compare the photostability of four fluorescein and four borondipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes of similar structure but different triplet yields. The latter class of dyes are more stable. In the kinetic analysis the, diffusion and photobleaching are treated as competitive processes. Corrections, which account for saturation and for experimental artefacts, are achieved solely by using experimental data. Photobleaching is found to occur mainly through the first excited singlet state S₁, in contrast to previous findings.     

Dynamics of nonspecific adsorption of insulin to erythrocyte membranes

Molecules may arrive at targets (receptors, enzymes, etc.) localized on a membrane surface by first adsorbing onto the surface and then surface diffusing to the targets. The flux rate of molecules arriving at targets via this mechanism depends on the surface diffusion coefficient of the molecules and, in some circumstances, on the adsorption/desorption kinetics. The technique of total internal reflection with fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (TIR-FRAP) was used here to study these rate parameters of fluorescein-labeled insulin (f-insulin) interacting with erythrocyte ghosts. Ghosts were adhered to polylysine coated slides for TIR illumination. Some ghosts became flattened and unsealed on the polylysine so that both extracellular and cytoplasmic sides of the membrane were openly exposed to the solution. An aluminum thin film between the polylysine and the fused silica of a slide quenched background fluorescence from f-insulin adsorbed directly onto the polylysine. An interference fringe pattern from two intersecting and totally internally reflecting laser beams provided surface-selective excitation with a spatial variation of illumination intensity across a ghost for surface diffusion measurements. Measured characteristic values of desorption rate constants ranged from 0.043 to 270 s^–1. According to a preexisting theoretical model, the largest desorption rate constant in this range would result in some increase in the total flux rate to a perfect sink target due to capture from the surface, provided that the surface diffusion coefficient was about 10^–8 cm²/s. However, based on TIR-FRAP measurements on our system, we estimate that the surface diffusion coefficient is less than about 5×10^–10 cm²/s. The combination of novel techniques presented here may prove valuable to other workers seeking to make diffusive and chemical kinetic rate parameter measurements of biomolecules at biological cell membranes.