Water-soluble Triazabutadienes that Release Diazonium Species upon Physiologically Relevant Protonation

This technology is a class of water-soluble triazabutadienes that deposit desired molecular diazonium salt cargo in a pH sensitive and reactive manner. The triazabutadiene is stable at higher pH values, allowing the decomposition to be controlled.

Background:

Certain viruses and pathogens, such as the dengue virus (DENV), have pH sensitive pathways and chemistries. While molecules exhibiting these characteristic processes have been studied in the past, known methods are reversible and do not exhibit the same level of pH sensitivity and reactivity as the biological counterpart. This research seeks to investigate and develop probes that undergo irreversible reactions under such environmental conditions as DENV, and even outperform DENV.

Advantages:

• Molecule discovered is highly pH sensitive and reactive, but stable at other conditions
• Molecule is water soluble, as opposed to current organic methods

Applications:

• Dengue virus (DENV) research
• Can be used in delivering drugs and assisting in specific detection regions, possible cancer detection
• DNA probes and analysis