Tuning the Baird aromatic triplet-state energy of cyclooctatetraene to maximize the self-healing mechanism in organic fluorophores.

ABSTRACT: Bright, photostable, and nontoxic fluorescent contrast agents are critical for biological imaging. "Self-healing" dyes, in which triplet states are intramolecularly quenched, enable fluorescence imaging by increasing fluorophore brightness and longevity, while simultaneously reducing the generation of reactive oxygen species that promote phototoxicity. Here, we systematically examine the self-healing mechanism in cyanine-class organic fluorophores spanning the visible spectrum. We show that the Baird aromatic triplet-state energy of cyclooctatetraene can be physically altered to achieve order of magnitude enhancements in fluorophore brightness and signal-to-noise ratio in both the presence and absence of oxygen. We leverage these advances to achieve direct measurements of large-scale confo

SUBMITTER: Pati AK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7533661 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature