Fluorescent indolizine derivative YI-13 detects amyloid-β monomers, dimers, and plaques in the brain of 5XFAD Alzheimer transgenic mouse model

Alzheimer disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the aberrant production and accumulation of amyloid-beta (A beta) peptides in the brain. Accumulated A beta in soluble oligomer and insoluble plaque forms are considered to be a pathological culprit and biomarker of the disorder. Here, we report a fluorescent universal A beta-indicator YI-13, 5-(4-fluorobenzoyl)-7,8-dihydropyrrolo[1,2-b]isoquinolin-9(6H)-one, which detects A beta monomers, dimers, and plaques. We synthesized a library of 26 fluorescence chemicals with the indolizine core and screen them through a series of in vitro tests utilizing A beta as a target and YI-13 was selected as the final imaging candidate. YI-13 was found to stain and visualize insoluble A beta plaques in the brain tissue, of a transgenic mouse model with five familial AD mutations (5XFAD), by a histochemical approach and to label soluble A beta oligomers within brain lysates of the mouse model under a fluorescence plate reader. Among oligomers aggregated from monomers and synthetic dimers from chemically conjugated monomers, YI-13 preferred the dimeric A beta.