Alzheimer's disease (AD) is currently an incurable neurodegenerative disorder that affects millions of people around the world. The aggregation of amyloid-β peptides (Aβ), one of the primary pathological hallmarks of AD, plays a key role in the AD pathogenesis. In this regard, Aβ aggregates have been considered as both biomarkers and drug targets for the diagnosis and therapy of AD. Various Aβ-targeted metal complexes have exhibited promising potential as anti-AD agents due to their fascinating physicochemical properties over the past two decades. This review classifies the complexes into three groups based on their potential applications in AD including therapy, diagnosis and theranosis. The recent representative examples are highlighted in terms of design rationale, working mechanism and potential applications.
Tyrosinase is an important enzyme in controlling the formation of melanin in melanosome, and plays a key role in the pigmentation of hair and skin. The abnormal expression or activation of tyrosinase is associated with several diseases such as albinism, vitiligo, melanoma and Parkinson disease. Excessive deposition of melanin could cause diseases such as freckles and brown spots in the human body, and it is also closely related to browning of fruits and vegetables and insect molting. Detecting and inhibiting the activity of tyrosinase is of extraordinary value in the progress of diagnosis and treatment of these diseases. Therefore, many selective optical detection probes and small molecular inhibitors have been developed, and have made significant contributions to the basic and clinical research on these diseases. In this paper, the detection and inhibition of tyrosinase and their application in whitening products are reviewed, with special emphasis on development of fluorescent probes and inhibitors. Hopefully, this review will help design more efficient and sensitive tyrosinase probes and inhibitors, as well as shed light on novel treatment of diseases such as melanoma.
MAO-A promotes the proliferation of human glioma cells. Herein, we report a series of MAO-A specific two-photon small molecular fluorescent probes (A1-5) based on intramolecular charge transfer enhancing strategy. The...
Abnormal expression of monoamine oxidase A (MAO‐A) has been implicated in the development of human glioma, making MAO‐A a promising target for therapy. Therefore, a rapid determination of MAO‐A is critical for diagnosis. Through in‐silico screening of two‐photon fluorophores, we discovered that a derivative of N,N‐dimethyl‐naphthalenamine (pre‐mito) can effectively fit into the entrance of MAO‐A cavity. Substitutions on the N‐pyridine not only further explore the MAO‐A cavity, but also enable mitochondrial targeting ability. The aminopropyl substituted molecule, CD1, showed the fastest MAO‐A detection (within 20 s), high MAO‐A affinity and selectivity. It was also used for in situ imaging of MAO‐A in living cells, enabling a comparison of the MAO‐A content in human glioma and paracancerous tissues. Our results demonstrate that optimizing the affinity binding‐based fluorogenic probes significantly improves their detection rate, providing a general approach for rapid detection probe design and optimization.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.