{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,29]],"date-time":"2026-06-29T06:44:57Z","timestamp":1782715497512,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":82,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"13","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,29]],"date-time":"2026-06-29T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1782691200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Institute of Health","award":["NIH\/NCI- R01CA280968B"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NIH\/NCI- R01CA280968B"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Molecules"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Heptamethine cyanine fluorophores are widely used in NIR imaging, due to their excellent photophysical properties. In the present work, new meso-ethoxy substituted heptamethine carbocyanine fluorophores 6a\u2013c were prepared by replacing the meso-chlorine atom on a cyclohexenyl-bridged scaffold through a base-driven SRN1 substitution reaction with an ethoxy group. Once isolated, the compounds were examined in several solvents to study how strongly the medium influenced their absorption, emission, and brightness. The fluorophores absorbed in the 755\u2013770 nm range and showed their strongest fluorescence in ethanol, whereas their emissions were heavily quenched in buffer solutions. Calculations of the HOMO and LUMO energies supported the observed data. A comparison with indocyanine green (ICG) under continuous light exposure showed that fluorophores 6a\u2013c degraded more slowly and maintained their absorbance for a considerably longer period. Having long hydrophobic alkyl chains raised the hypothesis that they could act as sensors for bovine serum albumin (BSA), which is known for its hydrophobic pockets. Therefore, they were tested for BSA binding both in silico and in cuvette. Fluorophore 6b produced a clear optical response when BSA was added, giving both a red shift and an increase in absorbance and fluorescence. Quantitative analysis of the fluorophore 6b\u2013BSA interaction revealed a dissociation constant (Kd) of 0.75 \u03bcM and an apparent binding stoichiometry of approximately 1:1 (Hill coefficient n = 1.25), confirming high-affinity, single-site binding. Using the linear range of the fluorescence titration, the limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantitation (LOQ) for BSA were determined to be 1.9 and 6.0 \u03bcM, respectively. Selectivity experiments demonstrated that fluorophore 6b does not exhibit fluorescence enhancement in the presence of collagen or human parvalbumin, confirming its selectivity toward BSA. These observations suggest that introducing an alkoxy group at the meso-position can improve carbocyanine fluorophores properties and achieve high photostability, with significant potential for various biomedical applications.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/molecules31132267","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,29]],"date-time":"2026-06-29T05:49:33Z","timestamp":1782712173000},"page":"2267","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Ethoxy Meso-Modified Heptamethine Cyanine Fluorophores: Synthesis, Photophysical Properties and BSA Sensing Study"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"31","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2999-1798","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Tarek Erfan","family":"Ahmed","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Center for Diagnostics and Therapeutics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6475-0156","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Maged","family":"Henary","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry and Center for Diagnostics and Therapeutics, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,29]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e202200095","DOI":"10.1002\/ajoc.202200095","article-title":"Near-Infrared Fluorophores Based on Heptamethine Cyanine Dyes: From Their Synthesis and Photophysical Properties to Recent Optical Sensing and Bioimaging Applications","volume":"11","author":"Medeiros","year":"2022","journal-title":"Asian J. 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