Developing Push-Pull Hydroxylphenylpolyenylpyridinium Chromophores as Ratiometric Two-Photon Fluorescent Probes for Cellular and Intravital Imaging of Mitochondrial NQO1

Anal Chem. 2021 Feb 2;93(4):2385-2393. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c04279. Epub 2021 Jan 13.

Abstract

This work highlights the use of push-pull hydroxylphenylpolyenylpyridinium fluorophores coupled with trimethyl lock quinone to engineer the ratiometric two-photon probes for cellular and intravital imaging of mitochondrial NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase 1 (NQO1), a critical antioxidant enzyme responsible for detoxifying quinones. As a typical representative, QBMP showed favorable binding with NQO1 with a Michaelis constant of 12.74 μM and exhibited a suite of superior properties, including rapid response (4 min), large Stokes shift (162 nm), ultralow detection limit (0.9 nM), favorable two-photon cross section for the released fluorophore (70.5 GM), and deep tissue penetration (225 μm) in fixed brain tissues. More importantly, this probe was successfully applied for distinguishing different NQO1-expressing cancer and normal cells, revealing decreased NQO1 activity in a cellular Parkinson's disease model, screening NQO1 inducers as neuroprotective agents, and imaging of NQO1 in live mouse brain.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Brain / blood supply
  • Cell Line
  • Cell Survival / drug effects
  • Diagnostic Imaging
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Intravital Microscopy / methods
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Mitochondria / metabolism*
  • Molecular Structure
  • NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase (Quinone) / chemistry
  • NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase (Quinone) / metabolism*
  • Pyridinium Compounds / chemical synthesis
  • Pyridinium Compounds / chemistry*
  • Pyridinium Compounds / toxicity
  • Rats
  • Single-Cell Analysis

Substances

  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Pyridinium Compounds
  • NAD(P)H Dehydrogenase (Quinone)
  • NQO1 protein, human
  • NQO1 protein, rat
  • Nqo1 protein, mouse