Smart probes

Technological innovations with straightforward outcomes in medicinal chemistry and chemical biology are reliant on fluorescent reporters ever more accurate and practically convenient. Numerous probes are now available, allowing for the detection of a wide panel of cellular biomarkers and biorelevant analytes. This approach has proven successful over the past years, for prognostic, diagnostic and theranostic purposes as well as intraoperative manipulations. Next generation molecular tools, known as “smart fluorescent probes”, are currently being developed: these fluorogenic dyes uniquely switch on upon interaction/reaction with their targets only, thus dramatically improving the quality of the detection. In recent years, P2DA has actively contributed to these innovations via the development and applications of organic-based fluorophores (boron dipyrromethenes (BODIPY), cyanines, diketopyrrolopyrroles, porphyrins, corroles, phthalocyanines, xanthenes, etc.). Our “smart” fluorogenic molecular tools have addressed critical biological concerns, being successfully applied for imaging a wealth of cellular constituents (including enzymes (e.g., liver esterase) and alternative nucleic acid structures (e.g., DNA and RNA quadruplexes)), but also to investigate the stability of a drug in vitro through various imaging modalities (confocal, two-photon or stochastic optical reconstruction microscopies as well as Cherenkov luminescence imaging).

People involved: B. Collin (MCF uB), R. Decréau (MCF uB), F. Denat (PU uB), N. Desbois (MCF uB), C. Goze (MCF uB), C. Gros (PU uB), D. Monchaud (DR CNRS), A. Romieu (PU uB), I. Valverde (CR CNRS)