title: Merocyanine dyes with improved photostability.
abstract: Merocyanine dyes have proven valuable for live cell fluorescence imaging applications, but many structures have been limited by rapid photobleaching. We show that photostability is substantially enhanced for merocyanines having a cyano group at a specific position in the central polymethine chain. Evidence is presented that this is due to reduction in reactivity of the dyes with singlet oxygen. These results point toward cyano-substitution as a general strategy for improving dye performance in imaging applications.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology and Lineberger Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599, USA. alexei.toutchkine@sial.com
authors.forename: Alexei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Toutchkine
authors.forename: Dan-Vinh
authors.initials: DV
authors.lastname: Nguyen
authors.forename: Klaus M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Hahn
mesh_terms: D005453:Fluorescence; D010777:Photochemistry; D011744:Pyrimidinones / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D011744:Pyrimidinones; C003954:merocyanine dye