Amlodipine, a unique long-lasting calcium channel antagonist and antihypertensive drug, has weak fluorescence in aqueous solutions. In the current paper, we show that direct visualization of amlodipine in live cells is possible due to the enhanced emission in cellular environment. We examined the impact of pH, polarity and viscosity of the environment as well as protein binding on the spectral properties of amlodipine in vitro, and used quantum chemical calculations for assessing the mechanism of fluorescence quenching in aqueous solutions. The confocal fluorescence microscopy shows that the drug readily penetrates the plasma membrane and accumulates in the intracellular vesicles. Visible emission and photostability of amlodipine allow confocal time-lapse imaging and the drug uptake monitoring.
Keywords: amlodipine; fluorescence; live cell imaging; lysosomes; microscopy.