Glycosidase activated release of fluorescent 1,8-naphthalimide probes for tumor cell imaging from glycosylated 'pro-probes'

2-Nitroimidazole based fluorescent probes for nitroreductase; monitoring reductive stress in cellulo

Two 2-nitroimidazole-1,8-naphthalimide conjugates, 1 and 2, have been synthesised as fluorescence probes for the detection of reductive stress in HeLa cells. The 4-substituted derivative 1 was shown to act as a highly sensitive and selective substrate for nitroreductase where it exhibited a clear blue to green ratiometric fluorescence response visible to the naked eye. Moreover, biological studies demonstrated 1 could be activated in cellulo where the impact of reductive stress was easily monitored using confocal microscopy and flow cytommetry.

Divalent Naphthalene Diimide Ligands Display High Selectivity for the Human Telomeric G-quadruplex in K+ Buffer

Selective G‐quadruplex ligands offer great promise for the development of anti‐cancer therapies. A novel series of divalent cationic naphthalene diimide ligands that selectively bind to the hybrid form of the human telomeric G‐quadruplex in K⁺ buffer are described herein. We demonstrate that an imidazolium‐bearing mannoside‐conjugate is the most selective ligand to date for this quadruplex against several other quadruplex and duplex structures. We also show that a similarly selective methylpiperazine‐bearing ligand was more toxic to HeLa cancer cells than doxorubicin, whilst exhibiting three times less toxicity towards fetal lung fibroblasts WI‐38.

Coordination chemistry of N-picolyl-1,8-naphthalimides: colourful low molecular weight metallo-gelators and unique chelation behaviours

A family of N-picolyl-1,8-napthalimide ligands display fascinating coordination chemistry and produce a series of robust and chemically responsive supramolecular metallo-gels.

A glycosylation strategy to develop a low toxic naphthalimide fluorescent probe for the detection of Fe3+in aqueous medium

A glycosylation strategy based on click chemistry was employed to develop a naphthalimide-based Fe³⁺fluorescent probe with low cytotoxicity and good water-solubility.

One-pot facile synthesis of 4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide derived Tröger's bases via a nucleophilic displacement approach

We report here a novel one-pot synthetic strategy for the synthesis of a family of N-alkyl-1,8-naphthalimide derived Tröger's bases (in overall yield of 65–96%) via a nucleophilic substitution reaction.

Optical techniques for cervical neoplasia detection

This paper provides an overview of the current research in the field of optical techniques for cervical neoplasia detection and covers a wide range of the existing and emerging technologies. Using colposcopy, a visual inspection of the uterine cervix with a colposcope (a binocular microscope with 3- to 15-fold magnification), has proven to be an efficient approach for the detection of invasive cancer. Nevertheless, the development of a reliable and cost-effective technique for the identification of precancerous lesions, confined to the epithelium (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia) still remains a challenging problem. It is known that even at early stages the neoplastic transformations of cervical tissue induce complex changes and modify both structural and biochemical properties of tissues. The different methods, including spectroscopic (diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, induced fluorescence and autofluorescence spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy) and imaging techniques (confocal microscopy, optical coherence tomography, Mueller matrix imaging polarimetry, photoacoustic imaging), probe different tissue properties that may serve as optical biomarkers for diagnosis. Both the advantages and drawbacks of these techniques for the diagnosis of cervical precancerous lesions are discussed and compared.