Design strategies for water-soluble small molecular chromogenic and fluorogenic probes.

This review focuses on classifying different types of long wavelength absorbing BODIPY dyes based on the wide range of structural modification methods that have been adopted, and on tabulating their spectral and photophysical properties. The structure–property relationships are analyzed in depth with reference to molecular modeling calculations, so that the effectiveness of the different structural modification strategies for shifting the main BODIPY spectral bands to longer wavelengths can be readily compared, along with their effects on the fluorescence quantum yield (ΦF) values. This should facilitate the future rational design of red/NIR region BODIPY dyes for a wide range of different applications.

Structural modification strategies for the rational design of red/NIR region BODIPYs

Fluorescence imaging techniques have been widely used to visualize biological molecules and phenomena. In particular, several studies on the development of small-molecule fluorescent probes have been carried out, because their fluorescence properties can be easily tuned by synthetic chemical modification. For this reason, various fluorescent probes have been developed for targeting biological components, such as proteins, peptides, amino acids, and ions, to the interior and exterior of cells. In this review, we cover advances in the development of 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene (BODIPY)-based fluorescent probes for biological studies over the past decade.

BODIPY-based probes for the fluorescence imaging of biomolecules in living cells

Reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen (RNS) species cause oxidative and nitrosative stresses, respectively. These stresses are implicated not only in diverse physiological processes but also in various pathological processes, including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders. In addition, some ROS and RNS in the environment are pollutants that threaten human health. As a consequence of these effects, sensitive methods, which can be employed to selectively monitor ROS and RNS in live cells, tissues and organisms as well as in environmental samples, are needed so that their biological roles can be understood and their concentrations in environmental samples can be determined. In this review, fluorescent, luminescent and colorimetric ROS and RNS probes, which have been developed since 2011, are comprehensively discussed.

Recent progress in the development of fluorescent, luminescent and colorimetric probes for detection of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species

Two types of carbon dots (C dots) exhibiting respective excitation-independent blue emission and excitation-dependent full-color emissions have been synthesized via a mild one-pot process from chlo...

Carbon Dots with Continuously Tunable Full-Color Emission and Their Application in Ratiometric pH Sensing

A lysosome-specific and two-photon fluorescent probe, Lyso-NINO, demonstrates high selectivity and sensitivity toward NO, lower cytotoxicity, and perfect lysosomal localization. With the aid of Lyso-NINO, the first capture of NO within lysosomes of macrophage cells has been achieved using both two-photon fluorescence microscopy and flow cytometry.

A lysosome-targetable and two-photon fluorescent probe for monitoring endogenous and exogenous nitric oxide in living cells.

We have developed Lyso-V, the first fluorescent probe of lysosomal viscosity. Because of its lysosome-actived fluorescence characteristics, Lyso-V has proved to be an ideal lysosomal tracer with high spatial and temporal resolution under laser confocal microscopy. More importantly, Lyso-V shows its practical applicability in real-time quantification of lysosomal viscosity changes in live cells through fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy.

Activatable Rotor for Quantifying Lysosomal Viscosity in Living Cells

Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probes are increasingly popular in biological imaging and sensing, as long-wavelength (650–900 nm) excitation and emission have the advantages of minimum photodamage, deep tissue penetration, and minimum interference from autofluorescence in living systems. Here, a series of long-wavelength BODIPY dyes SPC, DC-SPC, DPC, and DC-DPC are synthesized conveniently and efficiently. They exhibit excellent photophysical properties in far red to near-infrared region, including large extinction coefficients, high fluorescence quantum yields, good photostability, and reasonable two-photon absorption cross section. Comparison of single-molecular imaging confirms that DPC is a much more efficient and more photostable NIR fluorophore than the commonly used Cy5. Also importantly, two kinds of convenient functionalization sites have been reserved: the aryl iodide for organometallic couplings and the terminal alkyne groups for click reactions. Further derivatives DC-SPC-PPh3 exhibit specifi...

Long-Wavelength, Photostable, Two-Photon Excitable BODIPY Fluorophores Readily Modifiable for Molecular Probes

In the orignial 1,3,5,7-tetraphenyl aza-BODIPY, replacing the phenyl rings with thiophene achieved significant bathochromic shifts. One of the target molecules, DPDTAB, emitting strong NIR fluorescence with a quantum yield of 0.46 in acetonitrile, is a very competitive NIR fluorophore.

Replacing Phenyl Ring with Thiophene: An Approach to Longer Wavelength Aza-dipyrromethene Boron Difluoride (Aza-BODIPY) Dyes

Insufficient brightness of fluorophores poses a major bottleneck for the advancement of super-resolution microscopes. Despite being widely used, many rhodamine dyes exhibit sub-optimal brightness due to the formation of twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) upon photoexcitation. Herein, we have developed a new class of quaternary piperazine-substituted rhodamines with outstanding quantum yields (Φ = 0.93) and superior brightness (e × Φ = 8.1 × 104 L·mol-1·cm-1), by utilizing the electronic inductive effect to prevent TICT. We have also successfully deployed these rhodamines in the super-resolution imaging of the microtubules of fixed cells and of the cell membrane and lysosomes of live cells. Finally, we demonstrated that this strategy was generalizable to other families of fluorophores, resulting in substantially increased quantum yields.

Yi Xiao

Papers

A lysosome-targetable and two-photon fluorescent probe for monitoring endogenous and exogenous nitric oxide in living cells.

Activatable Rotor for Quantifying Lysosomal Viscosity in Living Cells

Long-Wavelength, Photostable, Two-Photon Excitable BODIPY Fluorophores Readily Modifiable for Molecular Probes

Replacing Phenyl Ring with Thiophene: An Approach to Longer Wavelength Aza-dipyrromethene Boron Difluoride (Aza-BODIPY) Dyes

Quaternary Piperazine-Substituted Rhodamines with Enhanced Brightness for Super-Resolution Imaging.