Lara-Cerón, Jesús A.Jiménez Pérez, Víctor M.Xochicale-Santana, LeonardoOchoa, María E.Chávez-Reyes, ArturoMuñoz-Flores, Blanca M.2023-05-182023-05-182020-08-26RSC Advances, Vol. 10, N° 53 (2020) p. 31748-317572046-2069http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12254/3255The size, shape, and number of nucleoli in a cell's nucleus might help to distinguish a malignant from a benign tumor. Cellular biology and histopathology often require better visualization to understand nucleoli-related processes, thus organelle-specific fluorescent markers are needed. Here, we report the design, synthesis, and fully chemo-photophysical characterization of fluorescent boron Schiff bases (BOSCHIBAs), derived from a-amino acids (i.e., phenylalanine, tyrosine and tryptophan), with nucleoli- and cytoplasm-specific staining in cells. It is the first time that Boron Schiff bases derived from a-amino acids act as notorious dual (nucleoli and cytoplasm) cell-staining fluorescent probes. The boron derivatives not only showed good photostability and acceptable quantum yields ($5%) in solution, but also exhibited low cytotoxicity (>90% cell viability at 0.1 and 1 mg mL 1), which make them good candidates to be used in medical diagnosis.enAtribución-NoComercial-CompartirIgual 3.0 Chile (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 CL)Boron Schiff basesA-amino acidsCell-stainingFluorescent probesArtículohttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-6655-815Xhttps://doi.org/10.1039/D0RA05948J