Latest ArticlesSelenized glucose can be easily prepared via the selenization reaction of glucose using in situ generated NaHSe as the selenization reagent. The technique has been industrialized to produce the chemical in kilogram scale, making it an easily available material in laboratory presently. The selenized glucose may be widely used as the starting material for the preparation of selenium-containing catalysts, as the organoselenium additive for feeds, and as the efficient selenium-enriched foliar fertilizers. In this work, we found that treating Fusarium graminearum, a fungal pathogen inciting wheat scab disease, with selenium glucose could significantly inhibit the generation of the deoxynivalenol (DON) toxin, which might be a breakthrough for reducing the detriment of the wheat scab disease.
Thioxo/dithioxo-naphthalimide is a class of rarely visited fluorophore, first synthesized in 1999. Facile chemistry was devised to achieve mono or dual thionation of the two carbonyl groups of 1, 8-naphthalimide. Thionation effectively shifts absorption maximum to longer spectral wavelength, significantly increase absorption coefficients, and dramatically enhances intersystem crossing efficiency with respect to their oxo-analogues. They were first explored as potent photocleavers to induce DNA strand break and novel photosensitizers for photodynamic therapies. In recent years, the unique chemistry of thioxo groups has been harnessed to achieve new applications, such as fluorescent sensors for heave metal ions. These unique photochemical and photophysical characteristics revitalize them intriguing functional molecules to investigate. In this short review, we wish to revisit their first discovery, facile synthesis, and the endeavors on the use of thioxo/dithioxo-naphthalimides for novel chemical and biomedical applications.
During past few years, the construction of fluorescent metallacycles featuring the fluorescence-resonance energy transfer behavior has attracted extensive attention due to their diverse applications such as real-time monitoring the dynamics of coordination-driven self-assembly, photoswitching fluorescence-resonance energy transfer, and light-controlled generation of singlet oxygen for cancer therapy. This review focuses on the recent advances on the design principles, preparation methods, optical properties, and the wide applications of fluorescent metallacycles with the FRET property.
The different oxidation states of sulphur atom play a significant role on functional materials. In this work, a aryl-thioether and its sulphone substituted benzo[c][1, 2, 5]oxadiazole dyes were synthesized and utilized to determine thiol-containing amino acids. The result of selectivity experiments showed they detected the cysteine and homocysteine under physiological condition with negligible interference from other amino acids. In comparison to the thioether dye, the sulphone-based dye exhibited much faster response time for Cys and Hcy. However, the sulphone restricted its thiol-reactivity and bioimaging performance in living cells. By reducing the oxidation state of sulphur atom, we amazedly found that the sulfoxide-based dye still maintained high selectivity ultrafast response time for Cys/Hcy under physiological condition. It was worth mentioning that it also had high reactivity and good bioimaging performance that sulfone compounds did not have.
Directly monitoring mitophagy-specific viscosity dynamic in living cells is of great significance but remains challenging. Herein, this study reported a novel mitochondria-targeted fluorescent probe DPAC-DY based on vibration-induced emission (VIE) for monitoring viscosity changes during mitochondrial autophagy. This probe contained N, N'-diphenyl-dihydrodibenzo[a, c]phenazine (DPAC) as the VIE core and two positively charged pyridinium moieties for mitochondria anchoring. As the ambient viscosity increased, the vibration of DPAC-DY could be hindered, and subsequently resulting in the enhancement of fluorescence emission. In vitro and intracellular experiments indicated that the probe DPAC-DY showed highly sensitive response to viscosity due to VIE mechanism. Importantly, by virtue of this probe, in situ and real-time visualization of the specific viscosity dynamics during the mitochondrial autophagy process was achieved. Thus, this work provides a novel strategy for VIE-based viscosity response sensors applied to specific organelles and offers a platform for in-depth study of mitochondrial viscosity-related diseases.
H2S is an essential gas signal molecule in cells, and viscosity is a key internal environmental parameter. Recent studies have shown that H2S acts as a cytoarchitecture agent and gas transmitter in many tissues, e.g., as a regulator of neuroendocrine in the brain for mediating vascular tone in blood vessels. Mitochondrial viscosity is an important parameter for judging whether mitochondrial function is normal. It has been reported that oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction are connected with Parkinson's disease (PD), and the protective role of H2S in PD models has been extensively demonstrated. Herein, Mito-HS, a new two-photon fluorescent probe was demonstrated to detect cross-talk between the two channels of mitochondrial viscosity and H2S content. Moreover, this probe could detect the relative amount of and changes in mitochondrial H2S in situ due to the reduced mitochondrial targeting ability after reaction with H2S. The results show that H2S in mitochondria is inversely related to viscosity. The PD model has a lower H2S in mitochondria and a higher mitochondrial viscosity than did the normal. This result is important for our deep understanding of PD and its causes.
In this article, an acid-responsive luminescent material, 1, 4-di(quinoline-6-yl)buta-1, 3-diyne (DQBD) is designed and synthesized. Upon different pH values, gradual changes of fluorescence colors for DQBD in both solution and solid phases are demonstrated due to the protonation effect. Moreover, such responsive characteristics can also be reversible, suggesting DQBD as a promising fluorescent material with great potential for reusable- and accurate-pH sensors in the future.
Palladium(0) as one of the vital transition metals, is employed in numerous industries, such as drug synthesis, aerospace high-tech field and automobile industry. When the Pd(0) enter into the body, it will bind with thiol-containing amino acids, DNA, RNA, and other biomolecules damaging to human health. Thus, developing a novel tool for monitoring and imaging of Pd(0) in vivo is very urgent. In the work, based on a intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) mechanism a two-photon fluorescent probe NIPd had been designed and synthesized for the recognition Pd(0). In vitro experiments data displayed that probe NIPd exhibited a 13-fold fluorescent increase for Pd(0) in 30 min in the aqueous solution with a detection limit of 16 nmol/L. It also showed the outstanding selectivity and antijamming performance. More importantly, NIPd could be served as a two-photon fluorescent probe for real-time monitoring Pd(0) in living cells and mice.
Triazolopyridines are an important kind of fused-ring compounds. A HOCl-promoted triazolopyridine formation strategy is reported here for the first time in which hypochlorous acid (HOCl) mildly and efficiently promotes the formation of 1, 2, 4-triazolo[4, 3-a]pyridines NT1-NT6 from various 2-pyridylhydrazones N1-N6. N6, a rhodol-pyridylhydrazone hybrid, was developed into a fluorescent probe for the selective detection of HOCl, and successfully applied to probe endogenous HOCl in living cells and zebrafish in situ and in real time. The present intramolecular cyclization reaction is selective and atom-economical, thereby not only providing an important approach for the convenient synthesis of triazolopyridines, but also offering a general strategy for sensitive, selective and biocompatible detection of endogenous HOCl in complex biosystems.
A new chiral bromobinaphthol-pyrene compound was developed to achieve a green circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) from its excimer with a dissymmetry factor (|glum|) value of 4.3×10-3 and a high quantum yield ΦF, solid up to 55.9%, while no CPL signals could be observed for the blue luminescence from unimolecule. Meanwhile, reversal CPL signals can be observed from both concentrated solution and solid.