Quinoline-based fluorescent small molecules for live cell imaging.

Abstract

Small molecule probes are essential tools for biomedical applications, with utility as cellular stains, labels for biomolecules, environmental indicators, and biosensors. However, a fluorophore's characteristics are difficult to predict solely through calculations or rational design, making the development of a core scaffold that is amenable to late stage functionalization particularly desirable. In this chapter, we describe the synthesis and application of a tunable quinoline scaffold that can be readily functionalized and optimized for a variety of imaging applications. We present a facile synthesis that results in three functional domains that influence the compound's photophysical properties, structural diversity, and polarization. We demonstrate a method with which to study the scaffold's tunable photophysical properties as a result of its structure and environment, and finally exhibit its utility in pH sensitive, live-cell imaging.