A promising family of fluorescent water-soluble aza-BODIPY dyes for in vivo molecular imaging

摘要： A new family of water-soluble and bioconjugatable aza-BODIPY fluorophores was designed and synthesized using a boron-functionalization strategy. These dissymmetric bis-ammonium aza-BODIPY dyes present optimal properties for a fluorescent probe, i.e. they are highly water-soluble, very stable in physiological medium, they do not aggregate in PBS, possess high quantum yield and finally they can be easily bioconjugated to antibodies. Preliminary in vitro and in vivo studies were performed for one of these fluorophores to image PD-L1 (Programmed Death-Ligand 1), highlighting the high potential of these new probes for future in vivo optical imaging studies.