Synthesis and Properties of a pH-Insensitive Fluorescent Nitric Oxide Cheletropic Trap (FNOCT)

Ex Tenebris Lux: Illuminating Reactive Oxygen and Nitrogen Species with Small Molecule Probes

Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species are small reactive molecules derived from elements in the air─oxygen and nitrogen. They are produced in biological systems to mediate fundamental aspects of cellular signaling but must be very tightly balanced to prevent indiscriminate damage to biological molecules. Small molecule probes can transmute the specific nature of each reactive oxygen and nitrogen species into an observable luminescent signal (or even an acoustic wave) to offer sensitive and selective imaging in living cells and whole animals. This review focuses specifically on small molecule probes for superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, hypochlorite, nitric oxide, and peroxynitrite that provide a luminescent or photoacoustic signal. Important background information on general photophysical phenomena, common probe designs, mechanisms, and imaging modalities will be provided, and then, probes for each analyte will be thoroughly evaluated. A discussion of the successes of the field will be presented, followed by recommendations for improvement and a future outlook of emerging trends. Our objectives are to provide an informative, useful, and thorough field guide to small molecule probes for reactive oxygen and nitrogen species as well as important context to compare the ecosystem of chemistries and molecular scaffolds that has manifested within the field.

1-Nitronyl nitroxide pyrene as a new off–on fluorescent chemosensor for Cu2+

A highly selective and sensitive colorimetric chemosensor based on nitronyl nitroxide was developed for detection of Cu²⁺.

Nitric oxide turn-on fluorescent probe based on deamination of aromatic primary monoamines

The stable, water-soluble, and nonfluorescent FA-OMe can sense nitric oxide (NO) and form the intensely fluorescent product dA-FA-OMe via reductive deamination of the aromatic primary amine. The reaction is accompanied by a notable increase of the fluorescent quantum yield from 1.5 to 88.8%. The deamination mechanism of FA-OMe with NO was proposed in this study. The turn-on fluorescence signals were performed by suppression of photoinduced electron transfer (PeT), which was demonstrated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations of the components forming FA-OMe and dA-FA-OMe. Furthermore, FA-OMe showed water solubility and good stability at physiological pHs. Moreover, the selectivity study indicated that FA-OMe had high specificity for NO over other reactive oxygen/nitrogen species. In an endogenously generated NO detection study, increasing the incubation time of FA-OMe with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) pretreated Raw 264.7 murine macrophages could cause an enhanced fluorescence intensity image. In addition, a diffusion/localization cell imaging study showed that FA-OMe could be trapped in Raw 264.7 cells. These cell imaging results demonstrated that FA-OMe could be used as a turn-on fluorescent sensor for the detection of endogenously generated NO.

Biochemistry of mobile zinc and nitric oxide revealed by fluorescent sensors

Biological mobile zinc and nitric oxide (NO) are two prominent examples of inorganic compounds involved in numerous signaling pathways in living systems. In the past decade, a synergy of regulation, signaling, and translocation of these two species has emerged in several areas of human physiology, providing additional incentive for developing adequate detection systems for Zn(II) ions and NO in biological specimens. Fluorescent probes for both of these bioinorganic analytes provide excellent tools for their detection, with high spatial and temporal resolution. We review the most widely used fluorescent sensors for biological zinc and nitric oxide, together with promising new developments and unmet needs of contemporary Zn(II) and NO biological imaging. The interplay between zinc and nitric oxide in the nervous, cardiovascular, and immune systems is highlighted to illustrate the contributions of selective fluorescent probes to the study of these two important bioinorganic analytes.

Distance-dependent Fluorescence Quenching and Binding of CdSe Quantum Dots by Functionalized Nitroxide Radicals

Quantum dot (QD) fluorescence is effectively quenched at low concentration by nitroxides bearing amine or carboxylic acid ligands. The association constants and fluorescence quenching of CdSe QDs with these derivatized nitroxides have been examined using electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and fluorescence spectroscopy. The EPR spectra in the non-protic solvent toluene are extremely sensitive to intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonding of the functionalized nitroxides. Fluorescence measurements show that quenching of QD luminescence is nonlinear, with a strong dependence on the distance between the radical and the QD. The quenched fluorescence is restored when the surface-bound nitroxides are converted to hydroxylamines by mild reducing agents, or trapped by carbon radicals to form alkoxyamines. EPR studies indicate that photoreduction of the nitroxide occurs in toluene solution upon photoexcitation at 365 nm. However, photolysis in benzene solution gives no photoreduction, suggesting that photoreduction in toluene is independent of the quenching mechanism. The fluorescence quenching of QDs by nitroxide binding is a reversible process.