Exploring NIR Aza-BODIPY-Based Polarity Sensitive Probes with ON-and-OFF Fluorescence Switching in Pluronic Nanoparticles.

Because of their deep penetration capability in tissue, red or near infrared (NIR) fluorophores attract much attention in bio-optical imaging. Among these fluorophores, the ones that respond to the immediate microenvironment (i.e., temperature, polarity, pH, viscosity, hypoxia, etc.) are highly desirable. We studied the response of six NIR aza-BODIPY-based and structurally similar fluorophores to polarity and viscosity for incorporation inside Pluronic nanoparticles as switchable fluorescent probes (SFPs). Based on our results, all of these fluorophores were moderately to strongly sensitive to the polarity of the microenvironment. We concluded that attaching amine groups to the fluorophore is not necessary for having strong polarity sensitive probes. We further studied the response of the fluorophores when embedded inside Pluronic nanoparticles and found that four of them qualified as SFPs. We also found that the switching ratio of the fluorophore-encapsulated Pluronic nanoparticles (ION-to-IOFF) is related to the length of the hydrophobic chain of the Pluronic tri-block copolymers. As such, the highest switching ratio pertained to F-68 with the lowest hydrophobic block poly (propylene oxide) (PPO chain of only 30 units).

Directly Attached Bisdonor-BF2 Chelated Azadipyrromethene-Fullerene Tetrads for Promoting Ground and Excited State Charge Transfer.

The efficiency and mechanism of electron- and energy-transfer events occurring in both natural and synthetic donor-acceptor systems depend on their distance, relative orientation, and the nature of the surrounding media. Fundamental knowledge gained from model studies is key to building efficient energy harvesting and optoelectronic devices. Faster charge separation and slower charge recombination in donor-acceptor systems is often sought out. In our continued effort to build donor-acceptor systems using near-IR sensitizers, in the present study, we report ground and excited-state charge transfer in newly synthesized, directly linked tetrads featuring bisdonor (donor=phenothiazine and ferrocene), BF2 -chelated azadipyrromethane (azaBODIPY) and C60 entities. The tetrads synthesized using multi-step synthetic procedure revealed strong charge-transfer interactions in the ground state involving the donor and azaBODIPY entities. The near-IR emitting azaBODIPY acted as a photosensitizing electron acceptor along with fullerene whereas the phenothiazine and ferrocene entities acted as electron donors. The triads (bisdonor-azaBODIPY) and tetrads revealed ultrafast photoinduced charge separation leading to D.+ -azaBODIPY.- -C60 and D.+ -azaBODIPY-C60.- (D=phenothiazine or ferrocene) charge separated states from the femtosecond transient absorption spectral studies in both polar and nonpolar solvent media. The charge-separated states populated the triplet excited state of azaBODIPY prior returning to the ground state.

The Mechanisms and Biomedical Applications of an NIR BODIPY-Based Switchable Fluorescent Probe.

Highly environment-sensitive fluorophores have been desired for many biomedical applications. Because of the noninvasive operation, high sensitivity, and high specificity to the microenvironment change, they can be used as excellent probes for fluorescence sensing/imaging, cell tracking/imaging, molecular imaging for cancer, and so on (i.e., polarity, viscosity, temperature, or pH measurement). In this work, investigations of the switching mechanism of a recently reported near-infrared environment-sensitive fluorophore, ADP(CA)2, were conducted. Besides, multiple potential biomedical applications of this switchable fluorescent probe have been demonstrated, including wash-free live-cell fluorescence imaging, in vivo tissue fluorescence imaging, temperature sensing, and ultrasound-switchable fluorescence (USF) imaging. The fluorescence of the ADP(CA)2 is extremely sensitive to the microenvironment, especially polarity and viscosity. Our investigations showed that the fluorescence of ADP(CA)2 can be switched on by low polarity, high viscosity, or the presence of protein and surfactants. In wash-free live-cell imaging, the fluorescence of ADP(CA)2 inside cells was found much brighter than the dye-containing medium and was retained for at least two days. In all of the fluorescence imaging applications conducted in this study, high target-to-noise (>5-fold) was achieved. In addition, a high temperature sensitivity (73-fold per Celsius degree) of ADP(CA)2-based temperature probes was found in temperature sensing.

A Dual-Modality System for Both Multi-Color Ultrasound-Switchable Fluorescence and Ultrasound Imaging.

Simultaneous imaging of multiple targets (SIMT) in opaque biological tissues is an important goal for molecular imaging in the future. Multi-color fluorescence imaging in deep tissues is a promising technology to reach this goal. In this work, we developed a dual-modality imaging system by combining our recently developed ultrasound-switchable fluorescence (USF) imaging technology with the conventional ultrasound (US) B-mode imaging. This dual-modality system can simultaneously image tissue acoustic structure information and multi-color fluorophores in centimeter-deep tissue with comparable spatial resolutions. To conduct USF imaging on the same plane (i.e., x-z plane) as US imaging, we adopted two 90°-crossed ultrasound transducers with an overlapped focal region, while the US transducer (the third one) was positioned at the center of these two USF transducers. Thus, the axial resolution of USF is close to the lateral resolution, which allows a point-by-point USF scanning on the same plane as the US imaging. Both multi-color USF and ultrasound imaging of a tissue phantom were demonstrated.

High-Resolution Ultrasound-Switchable Fluorescence Imaging in Centimeter-Deep Tissue Phantoms with High Signal-To-Noise Ratio and High Sensitivity via Novel Contrast Agents.

For many years, investigators have sought after high-resolution fluorescence imaging in centimeter-deep tissue because many interesting in vivo phenomena-such as the presence of immune system cells, tumor angiogenesis, and metastasis-may be located deep in tissue. Previously, we developed a new imaging technique to achieve high spatial resolution in sub-centimeter deep tissue phantoms named continuous-wave ultrasound-switchable fluorescence (CW-USF). The principle is to use a focused ultrasound wave to externally and locally switch on and off the fluorophore emission from a small volume (close to ultrasound focal volume). By making improvements in three aspects of this technique: excellent near-infrared USF contrast agents, a sensitive frequency-domain USF imaging system, and an effective signal processing algorithm, for the first time this study has achieved high spatial resolution (~ 900 µm) in 3-centimeter-deep tissue phantoms with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and high sensitivity (3.4 picomoles of fluorophore in a volume of 68 nanoliters can be detected). We have achieved these results in both tissue-mimic phantoms and porcine muscle tissues. We have also demonstrated multi-color USF to image and distinguish two fluorophores with different wavelengths, which might be very useful for simultaneously imaging of multiple targets and observing their interactions in the future. This work has opened the door for future studies of high-resolution centimeter-deep tissue fluorescence imaging.

Competitive electron transfer in a novel, broad-band capturing, subphthalocyanine-AzaBODIPY-C60 supramolecular triad.

A V-configured subphthalocyanine-azaBODIPY-C60 supramolecular triad has been newly synthesized, and sequential energy and electron transfer leading to the formation of charge separated states, useful properties relevant for solar energy harvesting and building optoelectronic devices, is reported.

Ultrafast Photoinduced Electron Transfer and Charge Stabilization in Donor-Acceptor Dyads Capable of Harvesting Near-Infrared Light.

To harvest energy from the near-infrared (near-IR) and infrared (IR) regions of the electromagnetic spectrum, which constitutes nearly 70 % of the solar radiation, there is a great demand for near-IR and IR light-absorbing sensitizers that are capable of undergoing ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer when connected to a suitable electron acceptor. Towards achieving this goal, in the present study, we report multistep syntheses of dyads derived from structurally modified BF2-chelated azadipyrromethene (ADP; to extend absorption and emission into the near-IR region) and fullerene as electron-donor and electron-acceptor entities, respectively. The newly synthesized dyads were fully characterized based on optical absorbance, fluorescence, geometry optimization, and electrochemical studies. The established energy level diagram revealed the possibility of electron transfer either from the singlet excited near-IR sensitizer or singlet excited fullerene. Femtosecond and nanosecond transient absorption studies were performed to gather evidence of excited state electron transfer and to evaluate the kinetics of charge separation and charge recombination processes. These studies revealed the occurrence of ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer leading to charge stabilization in the dyads, and populating the triplet states of ADP, benzanulated-ADP and benzanulated thiophene-ADP in the respective dyads, and triplet state of C60 in the case of BF2 -chelated dipyrromethene derived dyad during charge recombination. The present findings reveal that these sensitizers are suitable for harvesting light energy from the near-IR region of the solar spectrum and for building fast-responding optoelectronic devices operating under near-IR radiation input.

Multistep energy and electron transfer in a "V-configured" supramolecular BODIPY-azaBODIPY-fullerene triad: mimicry of photosynthetic antenna reaction-center events.

A new photosynthetic antenna-reaction-center model compound composed of covalently linked BF2 -chelated dipyrromethene (BODIPY), BF2 -chelated azadipyrromethene (azaBODIPY), and fullerene (C60 ), in a "V-configuration", has been newly synthesized and characterized by using a multistep synthetic procedure. Optical absorbance and steady-state fluorescence, computational, and electrochemical studies were systematically performed in nonpolar, toluene, and polar, benzonitrile, solvents to establish the molecular integrity of the triad and to construct an energy-level diagram revealing different photochemical events. The geometry obtained by B3LYP/6-31G* calculations revealed the anticipated V-configuration of the BODIPY-azaBODIPY-C60 triad. The location of the frontier orbitals in the triad tracked the site of electron transfer determined from electrochemical studies. The different photochemical events originated from (1) BODIPY* were realized from the energy-level diagram. Accordingly, (1) BODIPY* resulted in competitive ultrafast energy transfer to produce BODIPY-(1) azaBODIPY*-C60 and electron transfer to produce BODIPY(.) (+) -azaBODIPY-C60 (.) (-) as major photochemical events. The charge-separated state persisted for few nanoseconds prior populating (3) C60 *, which in turn revealed an unusual triplet-triplet energy transfer to produce (3) azaBODIPY* prior returning to the ground state. These findings delineate the importance of multimodular systems in energy harvesting, and more importantly, their utility in building multifunction performing optoelectronic devices.

Phenothiazine-azaBODIPY-fullerene supramolecules: syntheses, structural characterization, and photochemical studies.

Photoactive supramolecules composed of two entities of carbamoyl phenothiazines (PTZ) positioned at different locations of the BF2-chelated azadipyrromethene (azaBODIPY) periphery and fulleropyrrolidine (C60) have been newly designed and synthesized to probe excited state events. The X-ray structure of one of the precursor compounds, (PTZ)2-azaBODIPY, revealed spatially well separated PTZ entities without causing any steric hindrance. The supramolecules were fully characterized by spectral, computational, electrochemical and photochemical techniques. The geometry and electronic structures were arrived at by B3LYP/6-31G(dp) calculations (for H, B, N, and O) and B3LYP/6-31G(df) calculations (for S) in benzonitrile utilizing the Conductor Polarizable Continuum Model (CPCM). The different redox states were established from the differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) studies and the data were used to estimate free-energy change associated with the charge separation process. Interestingly, although phenothiazine is known to be a very good electron donor in photosynthetic model compounds and solar energy harvesting dyes, in the present system, the difficulty in oxidizing carbamoyl phenothiazine entities' contribution to the photochemistry originating from the singlet excited azaBODIPY was minimal. Consequently, femtosecond laser flash photolysis studies provided evidence for the occurrence of photoinduced electron transfer from (1)azaBODIPY* to C60 without participation of the PTZ entities. The energy level diagram constructed using spectral and electrochemical data provided a rational explanation for this observation. By monitoring the rise and decay of the fullerene radical ion peak, the measured rate of charge separation, kCS, and charge recombination, kCR, for supramolecule 1 were found to be 3.08 × 10(10) s(-1) and 7.96 × 10(9) s(-1), respectively, while these values for supramolecule 2 were found to be 4.68 × 10(11) s(-1) and 1.13 × 10(10) s(-1), respectively, revealing the occurrence of ultrafast electron transfer events. The photochemically generated (PTZ)2-azaBODIPY˙(+)-C60˙(-) radical ion pair followed a charge recombination path by populating (3)azaBODIPY* prior to returning to the ground state as confirmed by nanosecond transient absorption measurements.

Bis(subphthalocyanine)-azaBODIPY triad for ultrafast photochemical processes.

Multi-modular supramolecular systems capable of undergoing photoinduced energy and electron transfer are of paramount importance to design light-to-energy and light-to-fuel converting devices. Often, this has been achieved by linking two or more photo-active or redox-active entities with complementary spectral and photochemical properties. In the present study, we report a new triad made out of two entities of subphthalocyanine covalently linked to BF2-chelated azadipyrromethene ((SubPc)2-azaBODIPY). The triad was fully characterized by spectral, computational, electrochemical and photochemical techniques. The B3LYP/6-31G* calculations revealed a structure wherein the donor, SubPc, and the acceptor, azaBODIPY, were well separated with no steric crowding. The different redox states were established from the differential pulse voltammetry studies and the data were used to estimate free-energy change associated with charge separation. Such calculations revealed the charge separation from either the (1)SubPc* or (1)azaBODIPY* to be thermodynamically feasible for yielding the (SubPc)SubPc˙(+)-azaBODIPY˙(-) radical ion-pair. Steady-state fluorescence studies revealed quantitative quenching of (1)SubPc* in the triad and solvent dependent quenching of (1)azaBODIPY* indicating participation of both fluorophores in promoting photochemical events. In nonpolar toluene, singlet-singlet energy transfer from the (1)SubPc* to azaBODIPY was observed, while in polar benzonitrile, evidence of energy transfer was feeble. Femtosecond laser flash photolysis studies provided concrete evidence for the occurrence of ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer by providing spectral proof for the formation of the (SubPc)SubPc˙(+)-azaBODIPY˙(-) charge separated state. The charge recombination followed populating the (3)azaBODIPY* prior to returning to the ground state.

Thieno-pyrrole-fused 4,4-difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacene-fullerene dyads: utilization of near-infrared sensitizers for ultrafast charge separation in donor-acceptor systems.

Donor-acceptor dyads featuring near-IR sensitizers derived from thieno-pyrrole-fused BODIPY (abbreviated as SBDPiR) and fullerene, C60 have been newly synthesized and characterized. Occurrence of ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer (PET) leading to the formation of charge-separated state in these dyads, capable of harvesting light energy from the near-IR region, is established from femtosecond transient absorption studies.

Piezomicrogravimetric and impedimetric oligonucleotide biosensors using conducting polymers of biotinylated bis(2,2'-bithien-5-yl)methane as recognition units.

A new conducting polymer of biotinylated bis(2,2'-bithien-5-yl)methane was prepared and applied as the recognition unit of two different biosensors for selective oligonucleotide determination using either electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) or piezoelectric microgravimetry (PM) for label-free analytical signal transduction. For preparation of this unit, first, a biotinylated bis(2,2'-bithien-5-yl)methane functional monomer was designed and synthesized. Then, this monomer was potentiodynamically polymerized to form films on the surface of a glassy carbon electrode (GCE) and a Au electrode of a quartz crystal resonator (QCR) for the EIS and PM transduction, respectively. On top of these films, neutravidin was irreversibly immobilized by complexing the biotin moieties of the polymer. Finally, recognizing biotinylated oligonucleotide was attached by complexing the surface-immobilized neutravidin. This layer-by-layer assembling of the poly(thiophene-biotin)-neutravidin-(biotin-oligonucleotide) recognition film served to determine the target oligonucleotide via complementary nucleobase pairing. Under optimized determination conditions, the target oligonucleotide limit of detection (LOD) was 0.5 pM and 50 nM for the EIS and PM transduction, respectively. The sensor response to the target oligonucleotide was linear with respect to logarithm of the target oligonucleotide concentration in a wide range of 0.5 pM to 30 µM and with respect to its concentration in the range of 50 to 600 nM for the EIS and PM transduction, respectively. The biosensors were appreciably selective with respect to the nucleobase mismatched oligonucleotides.

Excitation-wavelength-dependent, ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer in bisferrocene/BF2-chelated-azadipyrromethene/fullerene tetrads.

Donor-acceptor distance, orientation, and photoexcitation wavelength are key factors in governing the efficiency and mechanism of electron-transfer reactions both in natural and synthetic systems. Although distance and orientation effects have been successfully demonstrated in simple donor-acceptor dyads, revealing excitation-wavelength-dependent photochemical properties demands multimodular, photosynthetic-reaction-center model compounds. Here, we successfully demonstrate donor- acceptor excitation-wavelength-dependent, ultrafast charge separation and charge recombination in newly synthesized, novel tetrads featuring bisferrocene, BF2 -chelated azadipyrromethene, and fullerene entities. The tetrads synthesized using multistep synthetic procedure revealed characteristic optical, redox, and photo reactivities of the individual components and featured "closely" and "distantly" positioned donor-acceptor systems. The near-IR-emitting BF2-chelated azadipyrromethene acted as a photosensitizing electron acceptor along with fullerene, while the ferrocene entities acted as electron donors. Both tetrads revealed excitation-wavelength-dependent, photoinduced, electron-transfer events as probed by femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy. That is, formation of the Fc(+)-ADP-C60(.-) charge-separated state upon C60 excitation, and Fc(+)-ADP(.-)-C60 formation upon ADP excitation is demonstrated.

Frovatriptan salts of aliphatic carboxylic acids.

The interaction of the antimigraine pharmaceutical agent frovatriptan with acetic acid and succinic acid yields the salts (±)-6-carbamoyl-N-methyl-2,3,4,9-tetrahydro-1H-carbazol-3-aminium acetate, C14H18N3O(+)·C2H3O2(-), (I), (R)-(+)-6-carbamoyl-N-methyl-2,3,4,9-tetrahydro-1H-carbazol-3-aminium 3-carboxypropanoate monohydrate, C14H18N3O(+)·C4H5O4(-)·H2O, (II), and bis[(R)-(+)-6-carbamoyl-N-methyl-2,3,4,9-tetrahydro-1H-carbazol-3-aminium] succinate trihydrate, 2C14H18N3O(+)·C4H4O4(2-)·3H2O, (III). The methylazaniumyl substitutent is oriented differently in all three structures. Additionally, the amide group in (I) is in a different orientation. All the salts form three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded structures. In (I), the cations form head-to-head hydrogen-bonded amide-amide catemers through N-H···O interactions, while in (II) and (III) the cations form head-to-head amide-amide dimers. The cation catemers in (I) are extended into a three-dimensional network through further interactions with acetate anion acceptors. The presence of succinate anions and water molecules in (II) and (III) primarily governs the three-dimensional network through water-bridged cation-anion associations via O-H···O and N-H···O hydrogen bonds. The structures reported here shed some light on the possible mode of noncovalent interactions in the aggregation and interaction patterns of drug molecule adducts.

A broad-band capturing and emitting molecular triad: synthesis and photochemistry.

A novel broad-band capturing and emitting supramolecular triad useful for solar energy harvesting and building optoelectronic devices is reported.