Water-Soluble Tetraphenylethene Derivatives as Fluorescent "Light-Up" Probes for Nucleic Acid Detection and Their Applications in Cell Imaging
Water-Soluble Tetraphenylethene Derivatives as Fluorescent "Light-Up" Probes for Nucleic Acid Detection and Their Applications in Cell Imaging
复制标题
DOI：
10.1002/asia.201300065
复制
发表时间：
2013-08-01
影响因子：
4.1
通讯作者：
Tang, Ben Zhong
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hong, Yuning;Chen, Sijie;Tang, Ben Zhong
核酸（如DNA和RNA）的检测在基因工程、法医学和生物信息学中起着重要作用。传统的核酸探针主要是嵌入剂（潜在的致突变剂）或凹槽结合剂（仅对双链DNA表现出高度偏好）。我们在此提出了两种用于核酸检测和可视化的通用荧光探针。非发光四苯乙烯衍生物（TTAPE）在DNA/RNA的诱导下发光，表现出聚集诱导发光（AIE）的新现象。这种发光特性使得能够分别对水溶液和电泳凝胶中的核酸进行定量和可视化。阳离子TTAPE可以容易地穿透具有受损质膜的细胞，但不能进入具有完整膜的活细胞，因此使它们可用于区分死细胞和活细胞。由于TTAPE与DNA具有很高的结合亲和力，它能选择性地标记固定细胞中的染色体和细胞核，为观察细胞有丝分裂提供了一种简便、快速的方法。由于它们的AIE特性，染料分子聚集在富含DNA的区域，并发挥可观的量子效率以及上级光稳定性。
The detection of nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, plays a significant role in genetic engineering, forensics, and bioinformatics. Traditional nucleic acid probes are mainly intercalators, which are potential mutagens, or groove binders that show high preference only for double-stranded DNA. We herein present two versatile fluorescent probes for nucleic acid detection and visualization. The nonemissive tetraphenylethene derivatives (TTAPE) are induced by DNA/RNA to emit, thereby showing a novel phenomenon of aggregation-induced emission (AIE). This kind of light-up property enables the quantitation and visualization of nucleic acids in aqueous solution and electrophoretic gels, respectively. The cationic TTAPE can penetrate cells with a compromised plasma membrane easily but cannot enter live cells with an intact membrane, thus making them useful for the differentiation between dead and live cells. On account of the high binding affinity to DNA, TTAPE can selectively label the chromosomes and nuclei in fixed cells, which provides a simple and fast method for the observation of cell mitosis. Owing to their AIE characteristics, the dye molecules aggregate in DNA-rich regions and exert appreciable quantum efficiency as well as superior photostability.