Synthesis and structural characterization BODIPY-based compounds for fluorescence sensing of β-amyloid aggregates

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with aging. According to the amyloid cascade hypothesis, the aggregation and accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) peptides in the brain as Aβ plaques is a critical process in the pathogenesis of AD. Among the existing diagnosis methods, fluorescence detection of β-amyloid (Aβ) has emerged as an alternative method due to its advantages such as real-time detection, low cost, not exposed to radiation, and high resolution for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we designed and synthesized BODIPY-based compounds (BODIPY-3, BODIPY-4 and BODIPY-5) for the fluorescence detection of Aβ aggregates. In the fluorescence studies for detecting Aβ, BODIPY-5 with the squaric acid ester unit at the meso position of the BODIPY core showed a promising effect with an 11.7 μM Kd value.