Toward Point-of-Care Detection of <i>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</i> : A Brighter Solvatochromic Probe Detects Mycobacteria within Minutes

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 for having 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 previous reports on the dye 4,4-N,N-dimethylaminonapthalimide (DMN-Tre). Excitingly, we detected fluorescent Mtb cells within 10 min 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.