Fluorescent probes articles from across Nature Portfolio

Electrochemical control of the switching of fluorophores in stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (EC-STORM) enables the counting of single fluorophores as well as cell imaging with improved spatial resolution and reduced artefacts compared with traditional STORM.

This protocol describes the preparation of long-lasting aggregation-induced emission-based, near-infrared afterglow luminescence nanoprobes. Their enhanced afterglow intensity results in improved imaging sensitivity and depth in vivo.

Activated neutrophils labeled with NIR-II lanthanide downshifting nanoparticles can be sequentially imaged through the intact skull of a mouse model of ischemic stroke during adhesion, crawling and extravasation processes

Fluorescence-based oligonucleotide probes, also known as molecular beacons (MBs), are popular for detecting nucleic acids with high specificity. Here, the authors demonstrate self-sequestration of MB-based biosensors and target strands within peptide-based coacervates, increasing local concentrations and significantly increasing the sensitivity and kinetics of the DNA biosensors.

Traditional urinalysis relies on endogenous biomarkers, which have limited diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. This Review discusses molecular optical probes that interact with disease biomarkers in vivo and produce artificial urinary biomarkers, which are excreted into urine for remote urinalysis.

As the need for specific fluorescent probes that enable high sensitivity and super-resolution imaging experiments continues to grow, it is imperative to develop new, well-characterized methods to modulate the emission of fluorophores. Now, a general platform affords visible-to-NIR fluorogenic fluorophores by engineering a simple cyclization event into cyanine dyes.

Cyclic cell-penetrating peptides are able to enter cells and deliver cargo molecules without being positively charged, previously assumed to be a prerequisite for inducing endocytosis.

Understanding the mechanics of acute kidney injury from toxins, ischemia and sepsis remains challenging. Molecular probes with high renal clearance have now been developed for real-time optical detection of early-stage biomarkers of drug-induced acute kidney injury, and for the understanding of the mechanisms of injury.

For decades chemists have focused on increasing the brightness of fluorophores. In super-resolution microscopy, however, fluorophores that preferentially exist in a non-fluorescent state, but occasionally re-arrange into a fluorescent form, can give better results.