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Simultaneous Visualization of Mitochondria and Lysosome by a Single Cyanine Dye: The Impact of the Donor Group (-NR2) Towards Organelle Selectivity

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Abstract

A benzothiazolium-based hemicyanine dye (probe 3) has been synthesized by attaching a morpholine group into a phenyl benzothiazolium skeleton. Probe 3 exhibited interesting photophysical characteristics including red emission (λem ≈600 nm), enhanced Stokes shift (Δλ ≈80 nm) and sensitivity to solvent polarity. Although the probe 3 exhibited almost no emission in aqueous environments (φfl ≈0.002), its fluorescence could be increased by ≈50 fold in organic solvents (φfl ≈0.10), making it possible for live cell imaging under wash-free conditions. Probe 3 exhibited excellent ability to visualize cellular mitochondria and lysosomes simultaneously, as observed from fluorescence confocal microscopy. In addition, probe 3 also exhibited good biocompatibility (calculated LC50 > 20 µM) and high photostability.

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Data Availability

All data generated during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).

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Acknowledgements

YP thanks the Coleman endowment from the University of Akron. We thank Dr. Leah Shriver from University of Akron for the generous gift of MO3.13 cell line, Dr. Michael Konopka from University of Akron for assistance in bioimaging, and Nicolas Alexander for acquiring mass spectrometry data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry and Maurice Morton Institute of Polymer Science, University of Akron, Akron, OH, 44325, USA

    Chathura S. Abeywickrama, Hannah J. Baumann & Yi Pang

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  1. Chathura S. Abeywickrama
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  2. Hannah J. Baumann
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  3. Yi Pang
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Contributions

C. S. A. planned, conducted, and summarized the synthesis and characterization of probes. C. S. A. and H.J.B. planned and performed cell imaging experiments. Y. P. supervised the project. C. S. A and Y. P. wrote the manuscript. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yi Pang.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Abeywickrama, C.S., Baumann, H.J. & Pang, Y. Simultaneous Visualization of Mitochondria and Lysosome by a Single Cyanine Dye: The Impact of the Donor Group (-NR2) Towards Organelle Selectivity. J Fluoresc 31, 1227–1234 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-021-02786-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10895-021-02786-1

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