Rules for the design of highly fluorescent nucleoside probes: 8-(substituted cinnamyl)-adenosine analogues

Currently, there are no tools that can help the design of useful fluorescent analogues. Hence, we synthesized a series of 8-(substituted cinnamyl)-adenosine analogues, 5-17, and established a relationship between their structure and fluorescence properties. We attempted to find a correlation between maximum emission wavelengths (λ(em)) of 5-17 or their quantum yields (φ), and Hammett constants (σ(p) and σ(m)) of the substituent on the cinnamyl moiety. A linear correlation was observed at low-medium σ values, but not at high σ values (≥0.7). Next, we explored correlation between λ(em) and φ of 5-17 and computed HOMO and LUMO energy levels of fragments of 5-17, i.e., 8-vinyl 9-Me-adenine (fluorescent molecule), 18, and substituted toluene rings (fluoresence modulators), 19-30. High φ correlated with relatively close LUMO levels of 19-30 and 18 (-0.076 to -0.003 eV). The electron density of LUMO of nitro analogues 9 and 15 is localized on the aryl ring only, which explains their low φ. Calculation of HOMO-LUMO gap of 5-17 enables accurate prediction of the λ(abs) for a planned analogue, and LUMO levels of an aryl moiety vs 8-vinyl 9-Me-adenine, allows the prediction of high or low φ. These findings lay the ground for prediction of fluorescence properties of additional analogues having a similar structure.