The near-infrared window of fluorescent heptamethine cyanine dyes greatly facilitates biological imaging because there is deep penetration of the light and negligible background fluorescence.H owever,d ye instability,a ggregation, and poor pharmacokinetics are current drawbacks that limit performance and the scope of possible applications.A ll these limitations are simultaneously overcome with an ew molecular design strategy that produces acharge balanced and sterically shielded fluorochrome.T he key design feature is am eso-aryl group that simultaneously projects two shielding arms directly over each face of alinear heptamethine polyene. Cell and mouse imaging experiments compared as hielded heptamethine cyanine dye (and several peptide and antibody bioconjugates) to benchmark heptamethine dyes and found that the shielded systems possess an unsurpassed combination of photophysical, physiochemical, and biodistribution properties that greatly enhance bioimaging performance. Scheme 1. Chemical structures of heptamethine cyanine dyes.

DJ-1 protein is involved in multiple physiological processes, including Parkinson’s disease. However, the role of DJ-1 in the metabolism is largely unknown. Here we found that DJ-1 maintained energy balance and glucose homeostasisvia regulating brown adipose tissue (BAT) activity. DJ-1-deficient mice reduced body mass, increased energy expenditure and improved insulin sensitivity. DJ-1 deletion also resisted high-fat-diet (HFD) induced obesity and insulin resistance. Accordingly, DJ-1 transgene triggered autonomous obesity and glucose intolerance. Further BAT transplantation experiments clarified DJ-1 regulates energy and glucose homeostasis by modulating BAT function. Mechanistically, we found that DJ-1 promoted PTEN proteasomal degradation via an E3 ligase, mind bomb-2 (Mib2), which led to Akt activation and inhibited FoxO1-dependent Ucp1 (Uncoupling protein-1) expression in BAT. Consistently, ablation of Akt1 mitigated the obesity and BAT dysfunction induced by DJ-1 transgene. These findings define a new biological role of DJ-1 protein in regulating BAT function, with an implication of the therapeutic target in the treatment of metabolic disorders.

Indocyanine Green (ICG) is a clinically approved near‐infrared fluorescent dye that is used extensively for various imaging and diagnostic procedures. One drawback with ICG is its instability in water, which means that reconstituted clinical doses have to be used very shortly after preparation. Two deuterated versions of ICG were prepared with deuterium atoms on the heptamethine chain, and the spectral, physiochemical, and photostability properties were quantified. A notable mechanistic finding is that self‐aggregation of ICG in water strongly favors dye degradation by a photochemical oxidative dimerization reaction that gives a nonfluorescent product. Storage stability studies showed that replacement of C−H with C−D decreased the dimerization rate constant by a factor of 3.1, and it is likely that many medical and preclinical procedures will benefit from the longer shelf‐lives of these two deuterated ICG dyes. The discovery that ICG self‐aggregation promotes photoinduced electron transfer can be exploited as a new paradigm for next‐generation photodynamic therapies.

We report a quite flexible naphthol-based cage (so-called “naphthocage”) which adopts a self-inclusion conformation in its free state and is able to bind singly charged organic cations extremely strongly (K a > 107 M–1). Ion-selective electrodes prepared with this naphthocage show a super-Nernstian response to acetylcholine. In addition, the highly stable complex (1010 M–1) between ferrocenium and the naphthocage can be switched electrochemically, which lays a basis for its application in stimuli-responsive materials.

Synthetic receptors that recognize ion pairs are potentially useful for many technical applications, but to date there has been little work on selective recognition of quaternary ammonium (Q+) ion pairs. This study measured the affinity of a tetralactam macrocycle for 11 different Q+·Cl– salts in chloroform solution. In each case, NMR spectroscopy was used to determine the association constant (K a) and the structure of the associated complex. K a was found to depend strongly on the molecular shape of Q+ and was enhanced when Q+ could penetrate the macrocycle cavity and engage in attractive noncovalent interactions with the macrocycle’s NH residues and aromatic sidewalls. The highest measured K a of 7.9 × 103 M–1 was obtained when Q+ was a p-CN-substituted benzylic trimethylammonium. This high-affinity Q+·Cl– ion pair was used as a template to enhance the synthetic yield of macrocyclization reactions that produce the tetralactam receptor or structurally related derivatives. In addition, a permanently interlocked rotaxane was prepared by capping the end of a noncovalent complex composed of the tetralactam macrocycle threaded by a reactive benzylic cation. The synthetic method provides access to a new family of rotaxanated ion pairs that can likely act as anion sensors, molecular shuttles, or transport molecules.