Piperazine multi-substituted triarylboron compound as an aqueous soluble fluorescent probe for imaging nucleoli, nuclear matrix and nuclear membrane

The nucleus is composed of the nuclear membrane, nuclear matrix, and nucleolus. To achieve simultaneous fluorescence imaging of multiple compartments of the nuclear, we synthesized TAB-piperazine-1 and TAB-piperazine-2 by functionalizing triarylboron with different structures using two or three piperazine groups, respectively. The probes can bind with RNA and be transferred from a high-polarity aqueous medium to lower-polarity RNA. After that, the polarity-sensitive TAB-piperazine-2 produced a ratio metric readout, accompanied by a noticeable color change from yellow to cyan, demonstrating more beneficial properties than TAB-piperazine-1. TAB-piperazine-2 can also be used for imaging the three compartments of the nuclear and analyzing their microenvironment polarity. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V.