Lutidine derivatives for live-cell imaging of mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum

Abstract

Mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are highly dynamic subcellular structures essential for several biological functions. The development of non-toxic, wash-free fluorophores to visualize these structures inside cells aid in understanding their localization and dynamics in diverse cellular processes. In this paper, we report the synthesis and characterization of lutidine-based cationic fluorophores bearing push-pull substituents with different electron donors and acceptor groups exhibiting emission in green and red wavelength regions and their subcellular localization in living cells. Confocal imaging of the molecules in the cellular domain reveals robust localization of three molecules (2, 4 and 5) in mitochondria, two with polyfluorophenyl substituents (6 and 7) localized in the ER. At the same time, the other two (1 and 3) showed non-specific imaging. The molecules can also sense the altered viscosity of the stressed ER and investigate their dynamics.