Synthesis and Characterization of High Affinity Fluorogenic α-synuclein Probes
Overview
Authors
Affiliations
Fluorescent small molecules are powerful tools for imaging α-synuclein pathology in vitro and in vivo. In this work, we explore benzofuranone as a potential scaffold for the design of fluorescent α-synuclein probes. These compounds have high affinity for α-synuclein, show fluorescent turn-on upon binding to fibrils, and display different binding to Lewy bodies, Lewy neurites and glial cytoplasmic inclusion pathologies in post-mortem brain tissue. These studies not only reveal the potential of benzofuranone compounds as α-synuclein specific fluorescent probes, but also have implications for the ways in which α-synucleinopathies are conformationally different and display distinct small molecule binding sites.
Venkatesh Y, Narayan K, Baumgart T, Petersson E bioRxiv. 2025; .
PMID: 39829767 PMC: 11741376. DOI: 10.1101/2025.01.07.631748.
Ligand Profiling as a Diagnostic Tool to Differentiate Patient-Derived α-Synuclein Polymorphs.
Chisholm T, Melki R, Hunter C ACS Chem Neurosci. 2024; 15(10):2080-2088.
PMID: 38690599 PMC: 11099917. DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.4c00178.
Venkatesh Y, Marotta N, Lee V, Petersson E Chem Sci. 2024; 15(16):6053-6063.
PMID: 38665526 PMC: 11040648. DOI: 10.1039/d4sc00024b.
Zeng Q, Liu S, Cui M ACS Med Chem Lett. 2023; 14(10):1467-1471.
PMID: 37849556 PMC: 10577886. DOI: 10.1021/acsmedchemlett.3c00384.
A Novel Brain PET Radiotracer for Imaging Alpha Synuclein Fibrils in Multiple System Atrophy.
Kim H, Chia W, Hsieh C, Saturnino Guarino D, Graham T, Lengyel-Zhand Z J Med Chem. 2023; 66(17):12185-12202.
PMID: 37651366 PMC: 10617560. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jmedchem.3c00779.