High-Affinity Fluorescent Probes for the Detection of Soluble and Insoluble A? Deposits in Alzheimer?s Disease

The overproduction and deposition of the amyloid-fi (Afi) aggregates are accountable for the genesis and development of the neurologic disorder Alzheimer's disease (AD). Effective medications and detection agents for AD are still deficient. General challenges for the diagnosis of Afi aggregates in the AD brain are (i) crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and (ii) selectivity to Afi species with (iii) emission maxima in the 500-750 nm region. Thioflavin-T (ThT) is the most used fluorescent probe for imaging Afi fibril aggregates. However, because of the poor BBB crossing (log P = -0.14) and short emission wavelength (482 nm) after binding with Afi fibrils, ThT can be limited to in vitro use only. Herein, we have developed Afi deposit-recognizing fluorescent probes (ARs) with a D -K-A architecture and a longer emission wavelength after binding with Afi species. Among the newly designed probes, AR-14 showed an admirable fluorescence emission (>600 nm) change after binding with soluble Afi oligomers (2.3-fold) and insoluble Afi fibril aggregates (4.5-fold) with high affinities Kd = 24.25 +/- 4.10 nM; Ka = (4.123 +/- 0.69) x 107M-1 for fibrils; Kd = 32.58 +/- 4.89 nM; and Ka = (3.069 +/- 0.46) x 107 M-1 for oligomers with high quantum yield, molecular weight of <500 Da, reasonable log P = 1.77, stability in serum, and nontoxicity, and it can cross the BBB efficiently. The binding affinity of AR-14 toward Afi species is proved by fluorescence binding studies and fluorescent staining of 18-month-old tripletransgenic (3xTg) mouse brain sections. In summary, the fluorescent probe AR-14 is efficient and has an admirable quality for the detection of soluble and insoluble Afi deposits in vitro and in vivo.

Automated summary

The overproduction and deposition of amyloid-fi (Afi) aggregates are responsible for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, effective medications and detection agents for AD are still lacking. This study introduces a fluorescent probe called AR-14, which has the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier and selectively bind to Afi species. AR-14 shows strong fluorescence emission at a longer wavelength after binding with soluble and insoluble Afi deposits, making it a promising tool for in vitro and in vivo detection.