Abstract
Recently, the development and applications of small molecule-based fluorescent probes for analyte detection have obtained much attention. Typically, a fluorophore is caged with an analyte recognition group to attenuate the fluorescence. In the presence of target molecule, the fluorophore is uncaged to induce a large fluorescence enhancement. In this thesis, we introduce a novel sensing mechanism based on caged biotin for analyte detection. The caged biotin is attached with an environment-sensitive fluorophore SBD and an analyte recognition group. Upon uncaging with the target molecule, the biotin-SBD probe is transferred to the avidin protein to emit stronger fluorescence. We have demonstrated this approach for the detection of nitroreductase, hydrazine and esterase. In addition, we have also used SBD dye to construct a MGMT-activated fluorescence probe. MGMT protein is a very useful prognostic marker to provide a guide for therapeutic decisions. We successfully designed this fluorogenic probe which consists of a specific MGMT suicide pseudosubstrate, O6-benzylguanine and SBD. We believe that these two fluorescence activation design based on SBD can also be extended to detect other important molecules.