Latent fluorophores have increased the effectiveness of fluorescence-based cellular imaging due to low background fluorescence produced from the �silent� fluorophore and the intense signal that arises when the �silent� fluorophore is activated by a trigger.  We report a naphthalimide-based latent fluorophore containing a trimethyl-locked quinone as the trigger group bound by an ethanolamine linker.  This allows for activation in the presence of NAD(P)H:quinone oxidoreductase-1 (NQO1) enzyme, a protein upregulated in over half of the NCI cancer cell lines.  Real-time fluorescence imaging was performed in vitro with NQO1 positive cell lines (HT-29 and A549).

Intracellular NQO1 activation of a cloaked fluorescent dye

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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