A New Strategy for Fluorogenic Esterase Probes Displaying Low Levels of Non-specific Hydrolysis

A new design for fluorescence probes of esterase activity that features a carboxylate-side pro-fluorophore is demonstrated with boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY)-based probes 1 a and 1 b. Because the design relies on the enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of an ester group that is not electronically activated, these probes exhibit a stability to background hydrolysis that is far superior to classical alcohol-side profluorophore-based probes, large signal-to-noise ratios, reduced sensitivity to pH variations, and high enzymatic reactivity. The utility of probe 1 a was established with a real-time fluorescence imaging experiment of endogenous esterase activity that does not require washing of the extracellular medium.