Chapter Eight - Hydrocyanines: A Versatile Family of Probes for Imaging Radical Oxidants In Vitro and In Vivo

Abstract

Radical oxidants, such as superoxide and the hydroxyl radical, play a pivotal role in biology. Technologies that can selectively image radical oxidants in various biological systems can play an important role in biology and medicine. Radical oxidants are critically involved in a wide variety of pathophysiologic events ranging from atherosclerosis to cancer, and radical oxidants are therefore, excellent diagnostic biomarkers for a wide range of diseases. Radical oxidants are also implicated in the efficacy of antibiotics and anticancer drugs, consistently, the radical oxidant probes can be useful in drug discovery process. Radical oxidants are also important in the process of evolution because of their role in DNA mutagenesis and leading to drug resistance. In conclusion, radical oxidants are implicated in over 150 inflammatory diseases and are involved in aging, toxicity, cell growth, signaling, cell differentiation, cell damage, tumor survival and drug efficacy, consequently, there is tremendous interest in imaging radical oxidants in biological systems. Hydrocyanines, therefore, are playing increasingly important role in studying redox and disease biology.