AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Glutathione (GSH) plays important roles in antioxidant defense, nutrient metabolism, and regulation of cellular processes, including cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. This project has focused on the synthesis of new potential fluorescent probes for glutathione and zinc binding. This allows monitoring GSH level in mitochondria, and zinc changes in biological targets. The synthesis of our target molecules was very challenging and required the use of several different strategies due to the chemical properties of our lead compound and intermediate molecules. Commercially available 3-aminophenol (1) was used as starting material. We were able to synthesize 2 new molecules, (4((3-hydroxyphenyl)amino)-4-oxobuyl)triphenylphosphonium (9) and tert-butyl(3((3-hydroxyphenyl)amino-3-oxopropyl)carbamate (7) (figure 1).