title: Mechanism-based molecular design of highly selective fluorescence probes for nitrative stress.
abstract: Nitrative stress is implicated in various pathogenic processes, including neurodegenerative disorders, but there is no practical fluorescence probe which can monitor the generation of nitrative stress with high selectivity. To design a suitable fluorescence probe, we have first focused on the fluorescence quenching mechanism of the nitro group, which has been believed to be a unique quencher of fluorescent dyes. We found that nitro group-based fluorescence quenching could be explained in terms of an electron transfer process, from the excited fluorophore to the electron-deficient aromatic nitro moiety. By utilizing this result, we succeeded in developing novel fluorogenic probes, NiSPYs, which can selectively monitor the generation of nitrative stress based on aromatic nitration. NiSPYs showed strong fluorescence enhancement upon the reaction with nitrating agents, including peroxynitrite, but showed little or no fluorescence augmentation in the presence of other reactive oxygen species. NiSPYs should be potentially useful as tools to study the role of nitrative stress in various biological applications.
authors.affiliation: Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
authors.forename: Tasuku
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ueno
authors.forename: Yasuteru
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Urano
authors.forename: Hirotatsu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kojima
authors.forename: Tetsuo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagano
mesh_terms: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D015394:Molecular Structure; D009566:Nitrates / Q000032:analysis* / Q000737:chemistry*; D013050:Spectrometry, Fluorescence
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D009566:Nitrates