Installing hydrogen bonds as a general strategy to control viscosity sensitivity of molecular rotor fluorophores

Molecular rotor-based fluorophores (RBFs) activate fluorescence upon increase of micro-viscosity, thus bearing a broad application promise in many fields. However, it remains a challenge to control how fluorescence of RBFs responds to viscosity changes. Herein, we demonstrate that the formation and regulation of intramolecular hydrogen bonds in the excited state of RBFs could modulate their rotational barrier, leading to a rational control of how their fluorescence can be activated by micro-viscosity. Based on this strategy, a series of RBFs were developed based on 4-hydroxybenzylidene-imidazolinone (HBI) that span a wide range of viscosity sensitivity. Combined with the AggTag method that we previously reported, the varying viscosity sensitivity and emission spectra of these probes enabled a dual-color imaging strategy that detects both protein oligomers and aggregates during the multistep aggregation process of proteins in live cells. In summary, our work indicates that installing intracellular excited state hydrogen bonds to RBFs allows for a rational control of rotational barrier, thus allow for a fine tune of their viscosity sensitivity. Beyond RBFs, we envision similar strategies can be applied to control the fluorogenic behavior of a large group of fluorophores whose emission is dependent on excited state rotational motion, including aggregation-induced emission fluorophores. The viscosity sensitivity of rotor-based fluorophores can be regulated by the installation of intramolecular hydrogen bonds at excited states.image