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Updated: Oct 14, 2025
Photoconversion of Purified Fluorescent Proteins and Dual-probe Optical Highlighting in Live Cells
Published on: June 26, 2010
Reversal of Solvatochromism: A New Strategy to Construct Activatable Two-photon Fluorescent Probes for Sensing
Yingxin Zheng1, Xing-Xing Zhang1, Ling Shi1
1State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Two-photon (TP) imaging with a donor-acceptor (D-A) type fluorophore is an emerging tool for bioimaging and sensing. However, current TP probes suffer from serious solvatochromic quenching in aqueous solution due to their strong intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) in excited states. In this work, based on solvatochromism reversal, we report a novel strategy to develop TP probes for bioimaging. Specifically, compared with the normal two-photon probes that showed a fluorescence off with ICT suppressed, the novel probes exhibited strong fluorescence in the aqueous solution when their ICT was inhibited. This strategy not only provides a new way for the design of high-performance TP probes, but also expands the biological analysis toolbox for use in living systems.
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