October 11, 2022
Faculty of Pharmacy, Keio University
A research group led by Professor Kenjiro Hanaoka of the Faculty of Pharmacy, Keio University, has for the first time elucidated the non-fluorescent mechanism of phenylrhodamines, a type of non-fluorescent dye known as a quencher. For the real-time and highly sensitive visualization of biological phenomena in vivo, fluorescence imaging, which allows for the observation of living cells and tissues by marking them with fluorescence, has become an indispensable technology. To achieve this fluorescence imaging, fluorescent probes that recognize the target biomolecule and switch their fluorescence from off to on are essential. On the other hand, quenchers are dye molecules that can extinguish the fluorescence of nearby fluorescent dyes and have been widely used as part of fluorescent probes for detecting enzyme activity. While these quenchers have been used in the development of fluorescent probes, their non-fluorescent mechanism had not been clarified.
In this study, the research group successfully elucidated its non-fluorescent mechanism for the first time through the synthesis of derivatives, investigation of their optical properties, and computational chemistry. This has led to the successful proposal of a new molecular design method for fluorescent probes that is qualitatively different from conventional ones. This molecular design method enables the precise molecular design of fluorescent probes that emit fluorescence simply by binding to a target protein. By developing fluorescent probes that bind to proteins highly expressed in pathological conditions and fluoresce, it is expected that rapid visualization of these conditions through fluorescence will become possible.
These research findings were published in the online edition of the international academic journal "Journal of the American Chemical Society" on October 3, 2022 (U.S. Eastern Time).
For the full press release, please see below.