Abstract
In the search for new biological imaging agents, metal coordination compounds able to emit from triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) states offer many advantages as luminescent probes of DNA structure. However, poor cellular uptake restricts their use in live cells. Here, we present a dinuclear ruthenium(II) polypyridyl system that works as a multifunctional biological imaging agent staining the DNA of eukaryotic and prokaryotic cells for both luminescence and transition electron microscopy. This MLCT ‘light switch’ complex directly images nuclear DNA of living cells without requiring prior membrane permeabilization. Furthermore, inhibition and transmission electron microscopy studies show this to be via a non-endocytotic, but temperature-dependent, mechanism of cellular uptake in MCF-7 cells, and confocal microscopy reveals multiple emission peaks that function as markers for cellular DNA structure.
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Acknowledgements
The author thanks C. Hill for TEM assistance and E. Smythe for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the EPSRC (UK) and the White Rose LSI-DTC.
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M.R.G., G.B. and J.A.T. conceived and designed the experiments, M.R.G. and J.G.-L. performed the experiments, all the authors analysed the data, G.B., S.F., C.S. and J.A.T. contributed materials and analysis tools, M.R.G., G.B. and J.A.T. co-wrote the paper.
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Gill, M., Garcia-Lara, J., Foster, S. et al. A ruthenium(II) polypyridyl complex for direct imaging of DNA structure in living cells. Nature Chem 1, 662–667 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.406
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nchem.406
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