Masked Amino Trimethyl Lock (H2N-TML) Systems: New Molecular Entities for the Development of Turn-On Fluorophores and Their Application in Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) Imaging in Human Cells

Masked trimethyl lock (TML) systems as molecular moieties enabling the bioresponsive release of compounds or dyes in a controlled temporal and spatial manner have been widely applied for the development of drug conjugates, prodrugs or molecular imaging tools. Herein, we report the development of a novel amino trimethyl lock (H2N-TML) system as an auto-immolative molecular entity for the release of fluorophores. We designed Cou-TML-N-3 and MURh-TML-N-3, two azide-masked turn-on fluorophores. The latter was demonstrated to selectively release fluorescent MURh in the presence of physiological concentrations of the redox-signaling molecule H2S in vitro and was successfully applied to image H2S in human cells

Automated summary

This article discusses the development of a novel amino trimethyl lock system for the release of fluorophores, which was successfully applied for imaging H2S in human cells in vitro.