A novel O,N,O-coordinated organofluoroboron probe for amyloid detection: insight from experiment and theory†

This work presents the results of photophysical studies for a newly synthesized BF-based organoboron dye of D–A–D topology. The one- and two-photon properties of the dye are compared with the D–A parent compound and commercially available amyloid marker: methoxy-X04. We demonstrate that the new dye exhibits better optical properties upon binding to amyloids than methoxy-X04, including emission above 600 nm, higher values of 2PA cross section, broader excitation range and higher increment of emission intensity upon binding to amyloids. All these data demonstrate that the new probe is an interesting scaffold for application in two-photon microscopy and amyloid staining.