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When Molecular Probes Meet Self‐Assembly: An Enhanced Quenching Effect
Author(s) -
Ren Chunhua,
Wang Huaimin,
Mao Duo,
Zhang Xiaoli,
Fengzhao Qianqi,
Shi Yang,
Ding Dan,
Kong Deling,
Wang Ling,
Yang Zhimou
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201411833
Subject(s) - quenching (fluorescence) , nanoprobe , fluorescence , phenylalanine , chemistry , biophysics , photochemistry , amino acid , biochemistry , biology , physics , quantum mechanics
We demonstrate that the incorporation of one or two amino acids of phenylalanine (F) or 4‐fluoro phenylalanine ( f F) will greatly lower the background fluorescence intensities of conventional quenched probes with quenchers. This enhanced quenching effect was due to the synergetic effect of the aggregation caused quenching and the presence of a quencher. Such strategy will not greatly affect the enzyme recognition properties to the probes. We also demonstrated that our self‐assembled nanoprobe with the enhanced quenching effect showed a better performance in cells for the detection of cell apoptosis than the unassembled probes. Our study demonstrates that using molecular self‐assembly can optimize and improve the performance of molecular probes and it provides a simple but very useful strategy to boost the signal‐to‐noise ratios of fluorescence probes.