Luminescent conjugated poly- and oligo-thiophenes: optical ligands for spectral assignment of a plethora of protein aggregates

The deposition of protein aggregates in various parts of our body gives rise to several devastating diseases, and the development of probes for the selective detection of aggregated proteins is crucial to advance our understanding of the pathogenesis underlying these diseases. LCPs (luminescent conjugated polythiophenes) are fluorescent probes that bind selectively to protein aggregates. The conjugated thiophene backbone is flexible and offers a connection between the conformation and the emission properties, hence binding of LCPs gives the molecule a spectral fingerprint. The present review covers the utilization of LCPs to study the heterogeneity of protein aggregates. It emphasizes specifically the introduction of well-defined probes called LCOs (luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes) and reports how these molecules can be used for real-time in vivo imaging of cerebral plaques as well as for spectral discrimination of protein aggregates and detection of early species in the fibrillation pathway of amyloid beta-peptide.