The Role of Small Molecules Containing Fluorine Atoms in Medicine and Imaging Applications.

The fluorine atom possesses many intrinsic properties that can be beneficial when incorporated into small molecules. These properties include the atom's size, electronegativity, and ability to block metabolic oxidation sites. Substituents that feature fluorine and fluorine-containing groups are currently prevalent in drugs that lower cholesterol, relieve asthma, and treat anxiety disorders, as well as improve the chemical properties of various medications and imaging agents. The dye scaffolds (fluorescein/rhodamine, coumarin, BODIPY, carbocyanine, and squaraine dyes) reported will address the incorporation of the fluorine atom in the scaffold and the contribution it provides to its application as an imaging agent. It is also important to recognize radiolabeled fluorine atoms used for PET imaging in the early detection of diseases. This review will discuss the many benefits of incorporating fluorine atoms into small molecules and give examples of fluorinated molecules used in the pharmaceutical industry and imaging techniques.

Selective G-quadruplex DNA recognition by a new class of designed cyanines.

A variety of cyanines provide versatile and sensitive agents acting as DNA stains and sensors and have been structurally modified to bind in the DNA minor groove in a sequence dependent manner. Similarly, we are developing a new set of cyanines that have been designed to achieve highly selective binding to DNA G-quadruplexes with much weaker binding to DNA duplexes. A systematic set of structurally analogous trimethine cyanines has been synthesized and evaluated for quadruplex targeting. The results reveal that elevated quadruplex binding and specificity are highly sensitive to the polymethine chain length, heterocyclic structure and intrinsic charge of the compound. Biophysical experiments show that the compounds display significant selectivity for quadruplex binding with a higher preference for parallel stranded quadruplexes, such as cMYC. NMR studies revealed the primary binding through an end-stacking mode and SPR studies showed the strongest compounds have primary KD values below 100 nM that are nearly 100-fold weaker for duplexes. The high selectivity of these newly designed trimethine cyanines for quadruplexes as well as their ability to discriminate between different quadruplexes are extremely promising features to develop them as novel probes for targeting quadruplexes in vivo.

Synthesis and Optical Properties of Pentamethine Cyanine Dyes With Carboxylic Acid Moieties.

Cyanine dyes possessing carboxylic acid groups have been used in many different fields of study. The acid groups can act as handles for bioconjugation or as metal chelators. Several pentamethine cyanine dyes with propionic acid handles were synthesized and their optical properties were studied to determine their usefulness as fluorescent probes. The optical properties studies performed include the absorbance and emission maxima values as well as the calculation of quantum yield and molecular brightness levels. Molecular models were also calculated to help analyze the dyes' behavior and were compared with similar dyes with varying alkyl chain lengths replacing the acid moieties.

Near-Infrared Illumination of Native Tissues for Image-Guided Surgery.

Our initial efforts to prepare tissue-specific near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent compounds generated successful correlation between physicochemical properties and global uptake in major organs after systemic circulation and biodistribution. Herein, we focus on the effects on biodistribution based on modulating electronic influencing moieties from donating to withdrawing moieties at both the heterocyclic site and through meso-substitution of pentamethine cyanine fluorophores. These selected modifications harnessed innate biodistribution pathways through the structure-inherent targeting, resulting in effective imaging of the adrenal glands, pituitary gland, lymph nodes, pancreas, and thyroid and salivary glands. These native-tissue contrast agents will arm surgeons with a powerful and versatile arsenal for intraoperative NIR imaging in real time.