Thioflavin-T (ThT) can bind to amyloid fibrils and is frequently used as a fluorescent marker for in vitro biomedical assays of the potency of inhibitors for amyloid-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and amyloidosis. Upon binding to amyloid fibrils, the steady-state (time-integrated) emission intensity of ThT increases by orders of magnitude. The simplicity of this type of measurement has made ThT a common fluorescent marker in biomedical research over the last 50 years. As a result of the remarkable development in ultrafast spectroscopy measurements, researchers have made substantial progress in understanding the photophysical nature of ThT. Both ab initio quantum-mechanical calculations and experimental evidence have shown that the electronically excited-state surface potential of ThT is composed of two regimes: a locally excited (LE) state and a charge-transfer (CT) state. The electronic wave function of the excited state changes from the initial LE state to the CT state as a result of the rotation around a single C-C bond in the middle of the molecule, which connects the benzothiazole moiety to the dimethylanilino ring. This twisted-internal-CT (TICT) is responsible for the molecular rotor behavior of ThT. This Account discusses several factors that can influence the LE-TICT dynamics of the excited state. Solvent, temperature, and hydrostatic pressure play roles in this process. In the context of biomedical assays, the binding to amyloid fibrils inhibits the internal rotation of the molecular segments and as a result, the electron cannot cross into the nonradiative "dark" CT state. The LE state has high oscillator strength that enables radiative excited-state relaxation to the ground state. This process makes the ThT molecule light up in the presence of amyloid fibrils. In the literature, researchers have suggested several models to explain nonradiative processes. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the various nonradiative models while focusing on the model that was initially proposed by Glasbeek and co-workers for auramine-O to be the best suited for ThT. We further discuss the computational fitting of the model for the nonradiative process of ThT.

Optical steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopic methods were used to study the photoprotolytic reaction of oxyluciferin, the active bioluminescence chromophore of the firefly's luciferase-catalyzed reaction. We found that like D-luciferin, the substrate of the firefly bioluminescence reaction, oxyluciferin is a photoacid with pK(a)* value of ∼0.5, whereas the excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) rate coefficient is 2.2 × 10(10) s(-1), which is somewhat slower than that of D-luciferin. The kinetic isotope effect (KIE) on the fluorescence decay of oxyluciferin is 2.5 ± 0.1, the same value as that of D-luciferin. Both chromophores undergo fluorescence quenching in solutions with a pH value below 3.

Steady-state absorption and emission as well as time-resolved emission spectroscopies were employed to study the photophysics and photochemistry of D-luciferin, the firefly active bioluminescent compound. In aqueous solution the electronically excited-state protonated D-luciferin compound undergoes an efficient process of proton transfer to the solvent, with a rate constant k(PT) = 3.0 x 10(10) s(-1). We found a kinetic isotope effect of about 2.5 for this process. The deprotonated form of D-luciferin in the excited state recombines irreversibly with the geminate proton. Hence, the fluorescence decay of the deprotonated form is nonexponential, and the fluorescence quantum yield is low.

Steady-state and time-resolved emission techniques were employed to study the nonradiative process of Thioflavin-T (ThT) in 1-propanol as a function of temperature. We found that the nonradiative rate, k(nr), decreased by about 3 orders of magnitude when the temperature was lowered to 88 K. We found remarkably good correspondence between the temperature dependence of k(nr) of ThT and the dielectric relaxation times of the 1-propanol solvent.

The excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) reaction of the "super"photoacid N-methyl-6-hydroxyquinolinium (MHQ) was studied using both fluorescence upconversion and time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) techniques. The ultrafast ESPT kinetics were investigated in various alcohols and water and determined to be solvent-controlled. The ESPT temperature dependence of MHQ was also studied in various alcohols and compared to that observed for another "super"photoacid, 5,8-dicyano-2-naphthol (DCN2). A full set of kinetic and thermodynamic parameters describing the ESPT was obtained. The protolytic photodissociation rate constant for MHQ was higher than that for DCN2, while the ESPT activation energies of MHQ were smaller. These findings are attributed to the approximately 3 orders of magnitude differences in excited-state acidities of MHQ and DCN2.

A computational model of nonradiative decay is developed and applied to explain the time-dependent emission spectrum of thioflavin T (ThT). The computational model is based on a previous model developed by Glasbeek and co-workers (van der Meer, M. J.; Zhang, H.; Glasbeek, M. J. Chem. Phys. 2000, 112, 2878) for auramine O, a molecule that, like ThT, exhibits a high nonradiative rate. The nonradiative rates of both auramine O and ThT are inversely proportional to the solvent viscosity. The Glasbeek model assumes that the excited state consists of an adiabatic potential surface constructed by adiabatic coupling of emissive and dark states. For ThT, the twist angle between the benzothiazole and the aniline is responsible for the extensive mixing of the two excited states. At a twist angle of 90°, the S(1) state assumes a charge-transfer-state character with very small oscillator strength, which causes the emission intensity to be very small as well. In the ground state, the twist angle of ThT is rather small. The photoexcitation leads first to a strongly emissive state (small twist angle). As time progresses, the twist angle increases and the oscillator strength decreases. The fit of the experimental results by the model calculations is good for times longer than 3 ps. When a two-coordinate model is invoked or a solvation spectral-shift component is added, the fit to the experimental results is good at all times.

Time-resolved emission techniques were employed to study the nonradiative process of thioflavin-T (ThT) in 1-propanol, 1-butanol, and 1-pentanol as a function of the hydrostatic pressure. Elevated hydrostatic pressure increases the alcohol viscosity, which in turn strongly influences the nonradiative rate of ThT. A diamond-anvil cell was used to increase the pressure up to 2.4 GPa. We found that the nonradiative rate constant, k(nr), decreases with pressure. We further found a remarkable linear correlation between a decrease in k(nr) (increase in the nonradiative lifetime, τ(nr)) and an increase in the solvent viscosity. The viscosity was varied by a factor of 1000 and k(nr) was measured at high pressures, at which the nonradiative rate constant of the molecules decreased from (7 ps)(-1) to (13 ns)(-1), (13 ps)(-1) to (17 ns)(-1) and (17 ps)(-1) to (15 ns)(-1) for 1-propanol, 1-butanol, and 1-pentanol, respectively. The viscosity-dependence of k(nr) is explained by the excited-state rotation rate of the two-ring systems, with respect to each other.

Steady-state emission and time-resolved techniques were employed to study the photoprotolytic processes d-luciferin undergoes in water-methanol mixtures over a wide range of molar fractions (chi(MeOH)) of methanol. We found that in the concentration range of 0 < chi(MeOH) < 0.8 the rate constant of the excited-state proton transfer (ESPT) to the solvent decreases nearly exponentially with increasing chi(MeOH). At chi(MeOH) > 0.8 the proton transfer rate constant decreases with an even steeper slope. The kinetic isotope effect (KIE) maintains a constant value of 2.4 +/- 0.2 at all the mixture's compositions.