Thioflavin T (ThT) is a commercially available fluorescent dye that is commonly used in biomedical research for over five decades. It was first reported as an extrinsic fluorescent probe for the detection of amyloid fibrils and related processes and it has also been used extensively for assessing protein binding in fluorescence-based assays. Although the nucleic acid binding of ThT was reported half of a century ago in the 1970s, it was not widely explored until the start of this decade. In recent years, Thioflavin T has become a major tool in the recognition of many types of non-canonical nucleic acid conformations including duplexes, triplexes, and G-quadruplexes. The propensity of ThT binding is more towards base aberrations, bulges, and mismatches highlighting its importance in serving as a diagnostic tool in a variety of ailments/disease conditions. In this review, we cover major advancements in nucleic acid detection/binding by ThT to a variety of nucleic acid structures.

硫黄素 T (ThT) 是一种市售的荧光染料，在生物医学研究中已使用了 5 多年。它首先被报道为用于检测淀粉样蛋白原纤维和相关过程的外源荧光探针，并且它也被广泛用于评估基于荧光的测定中的蛋白质结合。尽管在半个世纪前的 1970 年代报道了 ThT 的核酸结合，但直到本世纪初才被广泛探索。近年来，硫黄素 T 已成为识别多种非经典核酸构象的主要工具，包括双链体、三链体和 G-四链体。ThT 结合的倾向更倾向于碱基畸变、凸起、和错配突出了其在各种疾病/疾病状况中作为诊断工具的重要性。在这篇综述中，我们介绍了 ThT 在核酸检测/与各种核酸结构结合方面的重大进展。