Synthesis and Evaluation of Tetraarylethylene-based Mono‑, Bis‑, and Tris(pyridinium) Derivatives for Image-Guided Mitochondria-Specific Targeting and Cytotoxicity of Metastatic Melanoma Cells
Metastatic melanoma is the most aggressive and lethal form of skin cancer. Emerging evidence suggests that differences in melanoma metabolism relative to nonmalignant cells represent potential targets for improved therapy for melanoma. Specifically, melanoma cells exhibit increased mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) activity and concomitant hyperpolarized mitochondrial membrane potential relative to nonmalignant cells. We have synthesized several new fluorescent lipophilic vinylpyridinium cations built from tetraarylethylene scaffolds that target mitochondria via attraction to the hyperpolarized mitochondrial membrane potential. Mitochondria-specific accumulation in melanoma cells relative to normal human fibroblasts was demonstrated using confocal fluorescence microscopy and resulted in the disruption of oxidative metabolism leading to melanoma specific cell death in vitro. Thus, the pyridinium tetraarylethylene platform represents a promising new mitochondrial-targeted delivery vehicle with potential imaging and therapeutic properties.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 6. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 24 September 2026.
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#7,660,933
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#2,346
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#86,973
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Outputs of similar age from Bioconjugate Chemistry
#23
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Altmetric has tracked 34,652,893 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 73rd percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 5,660 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.1. This one is in the 42nd percentile – i.e., 42% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 74 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 55% of its contemporaries.
