Alterations in fluid viscosity at the cellular and organismal level can lead to different disorders and diseases such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes, hypertension, infarction and others. This is why, in recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of new methods to measure fluid viscosity.
Scientists at University of California, San Diego, and University of Georgia have now developed self-calibrating fluorescent sensors that can be used for ratiometric measurements of viscosity by covalent linking a reference fluorophore (donor) with a molecular rotor (acceptor). They also present an application of these dyes for the detection of changes of the membrane viscosity in a liposome model and they show that shorter linker length produces a more viscosity sensitive dye.
You can now read this HOT article which is free to access until 26th April. Both the referees and the Editorial Office ranked it as very significant.
Synthesis and evaluation of self-calibrating ratiometric viscosity sensors
Hyung-Jo Yoon, Marianna Dakanali, Darcy Lichlyter, Willy M. Chang, Karen A. Nguyen, Matthew E. Nipper, Mark A. Haidekker and Emmanuel A. Theodorakis
Org. Biomol. Chem.
DOI: 10.1039/C0OB01042A
