RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Towards Mycobacterium tuberculosis detection at the point-of-care: a brighter solvatochromic probe permits the detection of mycobacteria within minutes JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2020.05.29.124008 DO 10.1101/2020.05.29.124008 A1 Mireille Kamariza A1 Samantha G. L. Keyser A1 Ashley Utz A1 Benjamin D. Knapp A1 Green Ahn A1 C. J. Cambier A1 Teresia Chen A1 Kerwyn Casey Huang A1 Carolyn R. Bertozzi YR 2020 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/05/30/2020.05.29.124008.1.abstract AB There is an urgent need for point-of-care tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic methods that are fast, inexpensive, and operationally simple. Here, we report on a bright solvatochromic dye trehalose conjugate that specifically detects Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in minutes. 3-hydroxychromone (3HC) dyes, known to yield high fluorescence quantum yields, exhibit shifts in fluorescence intensity in response to changes in environmental polarity. We synthesized two analogs of 3HC-trehalose conjugates (3HC-2-Tre and 3HC-3-Tre) and determined that 3HC-3-Tre has exceptionally favorable properties for Mtb detection. 3HC-3-Tre-labeled mycobacterial cells displayed a 10-fold increase in fluorescence intensity compared to our previously reports on the dye 4,4-N,N-dimethylaminonapthalimide (DMN-Tre). Excitingly, we detected fluorescent Mtb cells within 10 minutes of probe treatment. Thus, 3HC-3-Tre permits rapid visualization of mycobacteria that ultimately could empower improved Mtb detection at the point-of-care in low-resource settings.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.