Design of triplex-forming peptide nucleic acid-based fluorescent probes for forced intercalation sensing of double-stranded RNA structures.

The diverse functional roles of RNA within cells have led to a growing interest in developing RNA-binding fluorescent probes to investigate RNA functions. In particular, the probes for double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) structures are of significant value given the importance of the secondary and tertiary RNA structures on their biologic functions. This review highlights our recent efforts on the development of triplex-forming peptide nucleic acid (TFP)-based probes for fluorescence sensing of dsRNA structures.

Bright and Light-Up Sensing of Benzo[]indole-oxazolopyridine Cyanine Dye for RNA and Its Application to Highly Sensitive Imaging of Nucleolar RNA in Living Cells.

Small molecular weight probes that can show a fluorescence signaling response upon binding to RNAs are promising for RNA imaging in living cells. Live-cell RNA imaging probes that can achieve a large light-up ability (>100-fold) and high Φ value for RNA (>0.50) have been rarely reported to date.

Deep-Red Light-up Signaling of Benzo[,]indole-Quinoline Monomethine Cyanine for Imaging of Nucleolar RNA in Living Cells and for Sequence-Selective RNA Analysis.

RNA-binding small probes with deep-red emission are promising for RNA analysis in biological media without suffering from background fluorescence. Here benzo[,]indole-quinoline (BIQ), an asymmetric monomethine cyanine analogue, was newly developed as a novel RNA-selective probe with light-up signaling ability in the deep-red spectral range. BIQ features a significant light-up response (105-fold) with an emission maximum at 657 nm as well as improved photostability over the commercially available RNA-selective probe, SYTO RNA select.