ICT‐Based Blue‐Emitting Dual‐Functional Probe (Ugi EML BLUE) for Bio‐Imaging and Cytotoxic Activities on HeLa Cells

Abstract

An Intramolecular Charge Transfer (ICT) based blue emitting fluorescent probe (Ugi EML BLUE) has been developed and its binding properties against human CDK2 protein have been studied via docking methods. The docking studies showed that, Ugi EML BLUE can effectively interact with the ATP binding sites of CDK2. The positive results obtained from the docking studies have been extended to the bio‐imaging as well as antineoplastic applications in HeLa cells. The in vitro biological activity studies revealed the remarkable potential of Ugi EML BLUE as a dual‐functional molecule that can be used not only as a CDK2‐targeted fluorescent probe for bio‐imaging (λabs 338 nm, λems 443 nm) but also as a CDK2 targeted inhibitor for HeLa cells (IC 50: 0.5 μg/mL). At the sub cellular level, Ugi EML BLUE can selectively interact with the ATP binding sites of the activated CDK 2 to arrest the transfer of phosphate groups from its bound ATP to the serine and threonine residues of the target substrates involved in DNA transcription and replication initiated at the G1 cell cycle phase and which will lead to the inhibition of tumor growth.