A new approach to the synthesis of APTRA indicators

We have devised a general synthesis of Mg(2+) indicators which is based on the aminophenol triacetic acid (APTRA) structure. The key step is a palladium-catalyzed coupling reaction of a precursor of the APTRA ligand with a fluorescent group. This strategy resulted in new ratioable fluorescent APTRA indicators and the finding that the fluorescence response of these indicators is different for Mg(2+) and Ca(2+) in some cases. We believe that this represents a generally useful approach for combining fluorophore and chelator functionalities.