Advances in FRET‐based biosensors from donor‐acceptor design to applications

Abstract

Fluorogenic biosensors are essential tools widely used in biomedicine, chemical biology, environmental protection and food safety. Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) is a crucial technique for developing fluorogenic biosensors that provide mechanistic insight into bioprocesses through time‐spatial bioimaging in living cells and organisms. Although extensive FRET‐based sensors have been developed for detecting or imaging analytes of interest over the past decade, few comprehensive reviews have summarized the recent studies from the fundamental chemical angle about the design and application. In this work, the recent advance in the discovery of FRET biosensors using donor‐acceptor dye combinations is described and they are classified based on different types of analytes, such as mall molecules, proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids and metal ions. This review provides molecular‐level inspiration for the design of FRET‐based biosensors, aiding in their application in biosensing and bioimaging.

Bioinspired Photonic Systems Directed by Designer DNA Nanostructures

“…This means that FRET is highly effective at short distances and diminishes rapidly at larger distances. The sensitivity of rate of energy transfer has been used to quantitatively determine distances ranging from 10 to 100 Å between biomolecules in solution as a molecular ruler as well as for biosensing …”

“…The sensitivity of rate of energy transfer has been used to quantitatively determine distances ranging from 10 to 100 Å between biomolecules in solution as a molecular ruler 9 as well as for biosensing. 10 In addition, the efficient FRET is also determined by the spectral overlap integral between the donor emission and acceptor absorption, which sums over all of the energyconserving coupled vibrational transitions, as well as the fluorescence quantum yield of the donor, the dipole orientation of donor/acceptor pair, and the refractive index of the solvent. Therefore, positioning FRET chromophore pairs with appropriate distance, orientation, and spectral characteristics is the key principle to design an artificial photonic system for efficient energy capture and energy flow.…”

Development of an aptasensor to target metallo-β-lactamase through Förster resonance energy transfer

“…Any fluorescent moiety, including organic small-molecule dyes, fluorescent proteins, lanthanide dyes, and fluorescent nanoparticles, can be used as a FRET donor [5]. However, the intrinsic photophysical properties of fluorescent dyes and proteins, which generally have broad absorption/emission profiles and low photobleaching thresholds, have limited their effectiveness in long-term imaging FRET devices [6].…”

Facile Synthesis of Donor–Acceptor Heterocycloarenes Based on Pyrazine Derivatives Possessing Intriguing Iodide Ion Capture Properties

“…Donor–acceptor (D–A) conjugated molecules containing alternate electronic donor (D) and acceptor (A) units exhibit tunable optical properties, electronic structures, and redox properties, − which have been extensively investigated and applied in various fields such as organic optoelectronic devices, − sensors , and bioimaging. , With the introduction of this design strategy into synthetic (hetero)cycloarenes, their electronic structure can be controlled by donor and acceptor motifs, while the rigid and well-defined cyclic skeletons remain (Figure a). These D–A (hetero)cycloarenes (DAHCs) are anticipated to combine the bilateral advantages of host–guest properties from macrocycles and interesting electronic properties from the D–A conjugated molecules.…”

“…However, because of the complexity of the synthesis and the absence of suitable building blocks, the tunability of the electronic properties for (hetero)cycloarenes is limited, which discourages their further applications. Donor−acceptor (D−A) conjugated molecules containing alternate electronic donor (D) and acceptor (A) units exhibit tunable optical properties, electronic structures, and redox properties, 26−29 which have been extensively investigated and applied in various fields such as organic optoelectronic devices, 30−34 sensors 35,36 and bioimaging. 37,38 With the introduction of this design strategy into synthetic (hetero)cycloarenes, their electronic structure can be controlled by donor and acceptor motifs, while the rigid and well-defined cyclic skeletons remain (Figure 1a).…”