Fluorescent probes for cancer detection.

Several new fluorescent dyes, derivatives of pyrene and of coumarin, were synthesized that have excitation and emission wavelength maxima considerably red-shifted as compared to most pyrene and coumarin compounds. These new fluorescent compounds have high extinction coefficients and high quantum yields, and they also are very environmentally sensitive, which makes them good probes of biological systems. Several of these fluorescent compounds are preferentially taken up and retained by leukemic and other cancer tissue cell lines as compared to normals, particularly 1,3-dihydroxy 6,8-pyrenedisodiumsulfonate and 3-(carboxymethylester)-7-julolidinocoumarin. These compounds may have some usefulness in cancer detection.