Novel designed 2,1,3-benzothiadiazole fluorescent probes were synthesized, characterized and applied as live cell fluorescence imaging probe staining only mitochondria in mammalian cancer cell lines (MCF-7). The efficiency of these new probes was found to be much superior to that of the commercially available MitoTracker® Red. Cellular and in vitro experiments allowed better understanding of the relationship between the planned molecular architecture of the new dyes and the observed cellular selectivity.
benzothiadiazole; synthesis; mitochondria; cellular staining
