Thymine-based molecular beacon for sensing adenosine based on the inhibition of S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase activity.

This study presents a thymine (T)-based molecular beacon (MB) used for probing S-adenosylhomocysteine hydrolase (SAHH)-catalyzed hydrolysis of S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) and for sensing adenosine based on the inhibition of SAHH activity. The designed MB (T8-MB-T8) contained a 15-mer loop and a stem that consisted of a pair of 8-mer T bases, a fluorophore unit at the 5'-end, and a quencher unit at the 3'-end. In the presence of Hg(2+), a change in the conformation of T8-MB-T8 placed the fluorophore unit and the quencher in proximity to each other and caused collisional quenching of fluorescence between them. The Hg(2+)-induced fluorescence quenching of T8-MB-T8 occurred because the Hg(2+) induced T-T mismatches to form stable T-Hg(2+)-T coordination in the MB stem. SAHH catalyzed the hydrolysis of SAH to produce homocysteine. The generated homocysteine enabled the Hg(2+) to be removed from a hairpin-shaped T8-MB-T8 through the formation of a strong Hg(2+)-S bond, leading to the restoration of its fluorescence. The T8-MB-T8 · Hg(2+) probe showed a limit of detection for SAHH of 4 units L(-1) (approximately 0.24 nM) and was reusable for detecting the SAHH/SAH system. Because adenosine was an effective SAHH activity inhibitor, the T8-MB-T8 · Hg(2+) probe combining the SAHH and SAH systems was used for sensitive and selective detection of adenosine in urine without the interference of other adenosine analogs.

Excitation-dependent visible fluorescence in decameric nanoparticles with monoacylglycerol cluster chromophores.

Organic fluorescent nanoparticles, excitation-dependent photoluminescence, hydrogen-bonded clusters and lysobisphosphatidic acid are four interesting individual topics in materials and biological sciences. They have attracted much attention not only because of their unique properties and important applications, but also because the nature of their intriguing phenomena remained unclear. Here we report a new type of organic fluorescent nanoparticles with intense blue and excitation-dependent visible fluorescence in the range of 410-620 nm. The nanoparticles are composed of ten bis(monoacylglycerol)bisphenol-A molecules and the self-assembly occurs only in elevated concentrations of 2-monoacylglycerol via radical-catalysed 3,2-acyl migration from 3-monoacylglycerol in neat conditions. The excitation-dependent fluorescence behaviour is caused by chromophores composed of hydrogen-bonded monoacylglycerol clusters, which are linked by an extensive hydrogen-bonding network between the ester carbonyl groups and the protons of the alcohols with collective proton motion and HO···C=O (n→π) interactions.