TY - JOUR A1 - Tillo, Adam A1 - Bartelmeß, Jürgen A1 - Chauhan, Vraj P. A1 - Bell, Jérémy A1 - Rurack, Knut T1 - Microfluidic Device for the Determination of Water Chlorination Levels Combining a Fluorescent meso-Enamine Boron Dipyrromethene Probe and a Microhydrocyclone for Gas Bubble Separation JF - Analytical Chemistry N2 - Chlorination procedures are commonly applied in swimming pool water and wastewater treatment, yet also in food, pharmaceutical, and paper production. The amount of chlorine in water needs to be strictly controlled to ensure efficient killing of pathogens but avoid the induction of negative health effects. Miniaturized microfluidic fluorescence sensors are an appealing approach here when aiming at online or at-site measurements. Two meso-enamine-substituted boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes were found to exhibit favorable indication properties, their reaction with hypochlorite leading to strong fluorescence enhancement. Real-time assays became possible after integration of these fluorescent probes with designed two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic chips, incorporating a passive sinusoidal mixer and a microhydrocyclone, respectively. A comparison of the two microfluidic systems, including their abilities to prevent accumulation or circulation of microbubbles produced by the chemical indication reaction, showed excellent fluidic behavior for the microhydrocyclone-based device. After coupling to a miniaturized optical reader for fluorescence detection, the 2D microfluidic system showed a promising detection range of 0.04−0.5 mg L−1 while still being prone to bubble-induced fluctuations and suffering from considerably low signal gain. The microhydrocyclone-based system was distinctly more robust against gas bubbles, showed a higher signal gain, and allowed us to halve the limit of detection to 0.02 mg L−1. The use of the 3D system to quantify the chlorine content of swimming pool water samples for sensitive and quantitative chlorine monitoring was demonstrated. KW - Chlorine KW - BODIPY KW - Fluorescence KW - Micro-Hydrocyclone KW - Microfluidic Chip PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.analchem.9b03039 SN - 0003-2700 VL - 91 IS - 20 SP - 12980 EP - 12987 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington, DC AN - OPUS4-49393 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Radunz, Sebastian A1 - Wedepohl, S. A1 - Röhr, Mathilde A1 - Calderón, M. A1 - Tschiche, H. R. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute T1 - pH-Activatable Singlet Oxygen-Generating Boron-dipyrromethenes JF - Journal of Medicinal Chemistry N2 - Singlet oxygen can severely damage biological tissue, which is exploited in photodynamic therapy (PDT). In PDT, the effective range is limited by the distribution of the photosensitizer (PS) and the illuminated area. However, no distinction is made between healthy and pathological tissue, which can cause undesired damage. This encouraged us to exploit the more acidic pH of cancerous tissue and design pH-controllable singlet oxygen-generating boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes. A pH sensitivity of the dyes is achieved by the introduction of an electronically decoupled, photoinduced electron transfer (PET)-capable subunit in meso-position of the BODIPY core. To favor triplet-state formation as required for singlet Oxygen generation, iodine substituents were introduced at the chromophore core. The resulting pH-controlled singlet oxygen-generating dyes with pKa values in the physiological range were subsequently assessed regarding their potential as pH-controlled PS for PDT. Using HeLa cells, we could successfully demonstrate markedly different pH-dependent cytotoxicities upon illumination. KW - Fluorescence KW - Sensor KW - Switch KW - pH KW - Singlet oxygen KW - PDT KW - Cell KW - BODIPY KW - Dye KW - Probe KW - Synthesis PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.9b01873 VL - 63 IS - 4 SP - 1699 EP - 1708 PB - ACS Publications AN - OPUS4-50554 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Liu, H. A1 - Song, W. A1 - Gröninger, Delia A1 - Zhang, L. A1 - Lu, Y. A1 - Chan, K. S. A1 - Zhou, Z. A1 - Rurack, Knut A1 - Shen, Z. T1 - Real-time monitoring of newly acidified organelles during autophagy enabled by reaction-based BODIPY dyes JF - Communications Biology N2 - Real-time monitoring of newly acidified organelles during autophagy in living cells is highly desirable for a better understanding of intracellular degradative processes. Herein, we describe a reaction-based boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dye containing strongly electron-withdrawing diethyl 2-cyanoacrylate groups at the α-positions. The probe exhibits intense red fluorescence in acidic organelles or the acidified cytosol while negligible fluorescence in other regions of the cell. The underlying mechanism is a nucleophilic reaction at the central meso-carbon of the indacene core, resulting in the loss of π-conjugation entailed by dramatic spectroscopic changes of more than 200 nm between its colorless, non-fluorescent leuco-BODIPY form and its red and brightly emitting form. The reversible transformation between red fluorescent BODIPY and leuco-BODIPY along with negligible cytotoxicity qualifies such dyes for rapid and direct intracellular lysosome imaging and cytosolic acidosis detection simultaneously without any washing step, enabling the real-time monitoring of newly acidified organelles during autophagy. KW - Autophagy KW - BODIPY KW - Fluorescence KW - Lysosome KW - Real-time imaging PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-498358 UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-019-0682-1 DO - https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-019-0682-1 SN - 23993642 VL - 2 SP - 442 PB - Nature Research CY - London AN - OPUS4-49835 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Descalzo, Ana B. A1 - Ashokkumar, Pichandi A1 - Shen, Z. A1 - Rurack, Knut T1 - On the Aggregation Behaviour and Spectroscopic Properties of Alkylated and Annelated BoronDipyrromethene (BODIPY) Dyes in Aqueous Solution JF - ChemPhotoChem N2 - The tendency of boron-dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes to associate in water is well known, and usually a cause for inferior fluorescence properties. Synthetic efforts to chemically improve BODIPYs’ water solubility and minimize this problem have been numerous in the past. However, a deeper understanding of the phenomena responsible for fluorescence quenching is still required. Commonly, the spectroscopic behaviour in aqueous media has been attributed to aggregate or excimer formation, with such works often centring on a single BODIPY family. Herein, we provide an integrating discussion including very diverse types of BODIPY dyes. Our studies revealed that even subtle structural changes can distinctly affect the association behaviour of the fluorophores in water, involving different photophysical processes. The palette of behaviour found ranges from unperturbed emission, to the formation of H or J aggregates and excimers, to the involvement of tightly bound, preformed excimers. These results are a first step to a more generalized understanding of spectroscopic properties vs. structure, facilitating future molecular design of BODIPYs, especially as probes for biological applications. KW - Aggregates KW - BODIPY KW - Excimers KW - Fluorescence KW - Photophysics PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-497771 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/cptc.201900235 SN - 2367-0932 VL - 4 IS - 2 SP - 120 EP - 131 PB - WILEY-VCH CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-49777 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -