A rapid access to activity-based and mitochondria targeting rhodol-like chromenoxanthene dyes for selective bioimaging

Abstract

Chromenoxanthenes are colorful dyes which do not suffer from any fluorescence turn-off induced by spirocyclic forms as usually observed for conventional rhodamine and fluorescein xanthene analogues. In that way, wide variety of applications in particular in bioimaging can be foreseen for those underexplored fluorophores. Herein, a one-pot synthesis of rhodol-like chromenoxanthene dyes is reported, which are further modified at the periphery of the core structure to tune the optical properties. Resulting neutral derivatives are bright fluorophores in the orange-red spectral window, while cationic counterparts are almost non-emissive. These optical properties are fully characterized and are also rationalized via first-principles calculations. In particular, the occurrence of twisted intramolecular charge transfers is shown to account for the dark-state quenching occurring in the charged compounds. This feature is harvested in the construction of an activity-based fluorescent probe for mitochondria imaging. Excellent organelle localization is achieved, while the emission signal is proportional to the hydrogen peroxide concentration in the mitochondria. Furthermore, the absence of cytotoxicity bestows rhodol-like chromenoxanthene dyes a bright future in cellular imaging applications.