STED nanoscopy is a type of super-resolution microscopy used to observe structures smaller than the diffraction limit of light, which is also its main advantage compared to classic fluorescent microscopy. In order to function, STED requires compatible fluorescent probes which are able to be turned on or off on demand. These probes are momentarily the biggest obstacle for STED.
During this work, we designed and synthesized fluorescent probes able to selectively stain cell membranes. They are based on phenoxazine and coumarin scaffolds which are already present as known fluorophores, yet many variations have not been tested in STED nanoscopy. The basic scaffolds were further modified with various functional groups to enable the probes to associate with membranes. We optimised the reactions and synthesized an array of probe candidates and measured their excitation and emission spectra that were used as basis to evaluate the influence of structure on photo-physical attributes. The chosen probes, which are PNMb-8, PNMb-9, PNMaw-2, PNMbw-2, PNMkb-2, PNMpb-2 and PNMpa-2, were sent to Institute Jožef Stefan and used in STED experiments.
They were used to stain biological samples and evaluated in the following criteria: selectivity of distribution between cell membranes, emission under STED conditions, photostability and cytotoxicity. Our probes label the plasma membrane very quickly, but they also stain other membranes rapidly. The best results were provided by PNMpa-2 that gives excellent super-resolution images, is not cytotoxic and is very photostable, even compared to commercially available probes. It is based on the coumarin scaffold with a N-methylpyridine group on position 3 and is a good starting point for further development of similar probes. The biggest drawback of phenoxazine probes, like PNMbw-2, is their limited photostability, which should be focused on first, during further development. Images taken with PNMbw-2, have amazing resolution, yet the probe was only suitable for a couple of pictures. The probe PNMb-9 showed signs of cytotoxicity, but on the other hand provided very sharp STED images and photobleached very lightly. Whether this is a trait of all 4-cyanocoumarins, has yet to be proven with further testing of additional probes.
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