TY - JOUR A1 - Ferger, Matthias A1 - Ban, Željka A1 - Krošl, Ivona A1 - Tomić, Sanja A1 - Dietrich, Lena A1 - Lorenzen, Sabine A1 - Rauch, Florian A1 - Sieh, Daniel A1 - Friedrich, Alexandra A1 - Griesbeck, Stefanie A1 - Kenđel, Adriana A1 - Miljanić, Snežana A1 - Piantanida, Ivo A1 - Marder, Todd B. T1 - Bis(phenylethynyl)arene Linkers in Tetracationic Bis-triarylborane Chromophores Control Fluorimetric and Raman Sensing of Various DNAs and RNAs JF - Chemistry-A European Journal N2 - We report four new luminescent tetracationic bis-triarylborane DNA and RNA sensors that show high binding affinities, in several cases even in the nanomolar range. Three of the compounds contain substituted, highly emissive and structurally flexible bis(2,6-dimethylphenyl-4-ethynyl)arene linkers (3: arene=5,5′-2,2′-bithiophene; 4: arene=1,4-benzene; 5: arene=9,10-anthracene) between the two boryl moieties and serve as efficient dual Raman and fluorescence chromophores. The shorter analogue 6 employs 9,10-anthracene as the linker and demonstrates the importance of an adequate linker length with a certain level of flexibility by exhibiting generally lower binding affinities than 3–5. Pronounced aggregation–deaggregation processes are observed in fluorimetric titration experiments with DNA for compounds 3 and 5. Molecular modelling of complexes of 5 with AT-DNA, suggest the minor groove as the dominant binding site for monomeric 5, but demonstrate that dimers of 5 can also be accommodated. Strong SERS responses for 3–5 versus a very weak response for 6, particularly the strong signals from anthracene itself observed for 5 but not for 6, demonstrate the importance of triple bonds for strong Raman activity in molecules of this compound class. The energy of the characteristic stretching vibration of the C≡C bonds is significantly dependent on the aromatic moiety between the triple bonds. The insertion of aromatic moieties between two C≡C bonds thus offers an alternative design for dual Raman and fluorescence chromophores, applicable in multiplex biological Raman imaging. KW - boranes KW - Raman probes KW - molecular modelling KW - fluorescent probes KW - DNA/RNA sensors Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-256717 VL - 27 IS - 16 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ban, Željka A1 - Griesbeck, Stefanie A1 - Tomić, Sanja A1 - Nitsch, Jörn A1 - Marder, Todd B. A1 - Piantanida, Ivo T1 - A Quadrupolar Bis-Triarylborane Chromophore as a Fluorimetric and Chirooptic Probe for Simultaneous and Selective Sensing of DNA, RNA and Proteins JF - Chemistry - A European Journal N2 - A water‐soluble tetracationic quadrupolar bis‐triarylborane chromophore showed strong binding to ds‐DNA, ds‐RNA, ss‐RNA, as well as to the naturally most abundant protein, BSA. The novel dye can distinguish between DNA/RNA and BSA by fluorescence emission separated by Δv =3600 cm\(^{-1}\), allowing for the simultaneous quantification of DNA/RNA and protein (BSA) in a mixture. The applicability of such fluorimetric differentiation in vitro was demonstrated, strongly supporting a protein‐like target as a dominant binding site of 1 in cells. Moreover, our dye also bound strongly to ss‐RNA, with the unusual rod‐like structure of the dye, decorated by four positive charges at its termini and having a hydrophobic core, acting as a spindle for wrapping A, C and U ss‐RNAs, but not poly G, the latter preserving its secondary structure. To the best of our knowledge, such unmatched, multifaceted binding activity of a small molecule toward DNA, RNA, and proteins and the selectivity of its fluorimetric and chirooptic response makes the quadrupolar bis‐triarylborane a novel chromophore/fluorophore moiety for biochemical applications. KW - boranes KW - circular dichrosism KW - fluorescent probes KW - luminescence KW - sensors Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-208154 VL - 26 IS - 10 ER -