The Fastest and the Brightest

American researchers have developed a probe for marking biomolecules that begins to fluoresce only when it is “switched on” by binding. As reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, the reaction takes place very quickly and the difference in brightness between the “on” and “off” states is two orders of magnitude bigger than for conventional activatable probes.

Marking biomolecules in living cells with fluorescent probes is a well-established technique. New research possibilities open up when these probes are combined with bioorthogonal reactions. Such reactions can occur inside a living system without disrupting normal biochemical processes.

This makes it possible to generate “turn-on” probes: a bioorthogonal reaction binding partner is bound to the biomolecule of interest (without affecting it) and acts as an anchoring site for the fluorescent probe. The probe is devised so that its fluorescence is significantly increased when it binds to the anchoring site. Because the probes not bound to the target fluoresce far less, background fluorescence is reduced. This eliminates the need for complex washing procedures that delay observation of the cells.

For all of this to work, the probe system must work without a toxic catalyst, react quickly to allow for time-resolved observation of biological processes, and fluoresce very strongly after being “turned on” to maximize the signal–strength relative to the background. It has not previously been possible to meet all of these requirements in one system.

A team led by Ralph Weissleder at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard University has now developed a system that fits the bill: an unusually bright, fast reacting, biocompatible probe system with a large difference between the switched on and switched off states.

The new probe consists of two components: The first is a fluorescent dye called BODIPY (boron dipyrromethene), a three-ring system with a subunit made of one boron, two nitrogen, and two fluorine atoms. The second component is a tetrazine molecule, a six-membered ring containing four nitrogen and two carbon atoms. Tetrazine quenches the fluorescence of BODIPY, which passes incoming energy off to the tetrazine component without radiation instead of fluorescing.

Tetrazine simultaneously serves as a reagent for the bioorthogonal reaction.
The reaction partner is modified trans-cyclooctene (TCO), which the researchers couple to the biomolecule to be studied by means of an antibody. When the probe is added, the tetrazine binds to the TCO, giving off nitrogen and binding the probe to the biomolecule.

The reaction destroys the probe’s tetrazine group, turning off the quenching of the fluorescence and allowing the BODIPY molecule to glow an intense green. The researchers recorded fluorescence over a thousand times stronger than that of the probe in the “off” state. This is two orders of magnitude stronger than all previously described turn-on probes.

The success of this system is due to the particularly strong fluorescence quenching made possible by the special electronic constellation and spatial arrangement of the BODIPY and tetrazine components relative to each other.

About the Author
Dr. Weissleder is Professor at Harvard University, Director of the Center for Systems Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and a member of the US National Academies Institute of Medicine. Dr. Weissleder’s research interests include the development of novel molecular imaging techniques, tools for early disease detection, and nanomaterials for systems analysis.
Author: Ralph Weissleder, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (USA), https://csb.mgh.harvard.edu/investigator/ralph_weissleder
Title: BODIPY—Tetrazine Derivatives as Superbright Bioorthogonal Turn-on Probes
Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Permalink to the article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201301100

Media Contact

Ralph Weissleder Angewandte Chemie

All latest news from the category: Life Sciences and Chemistry

Articles and reports from the Life Sciences and chemistry area deal with applied and basic research into modern biology, chemistry and human medicine.

Valuable information can be found on a range of life sciences fields including bacteriology, biochemistry, bionics, bioinformatics, biophysics, biotechnology, genetics, geobotany, human biology, marine biology, microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, zoology, bioinorganic chemistry, microchemistry and environmental chemistry.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

New yttrium-hydrogen compounds discovered

Researchers at the University of Bayreuth have made a significant scientific breakthrough by discovering new yttrium-hydrogen compounds having serious implications for the research on high-pressure superconductivity. High-pressure superconductivity refers to…

New AI model detects ninety percent of lymphatic cancer cases

Medical image analysis using AI has developed rapidly in recent years. Now, one of the largest studies to date has been carried out using AI-assisted image analysis of lymphoma, cancer…

UTA preps giant particle detectors for neutrino project

Excavation of caverns part of Fermilab’s Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. With excavation work complete at the site where four gigantic particle detectors for the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) will be…

Partners & Sponsors