Chemical Dosimetry Using Bisbenzimidazoles: Solvent-Dependent Fluorescence Response of Hoechst 33258 to Radiation Exposure

Bisbenzimidazoles have a broad spectrum of potential applications: radioprotectors, drug delivery vectors, antiviral agents, etc. At the same time, they seem to be promising fluorescent probes for radiation measurements. Therefore, in the present work, a fluorescent response to X-ray irradiation of Hoechst 33258, one of the most widely known representatives of the bisbenzimidazole family, was studied for the first time. Irradiation of the dye was performed in aqueous and organic solutions (DMSO and glycerol), as well as in their mixtures. It is shown that the reaction of the dye to radiation exposure is very versatile and may be controlled by the solvent properties, which makes it possible to build relationships between the absorbed dose and a wide variety of parameters of its fluorescence signal. For example, irradiation may induce fluorescence quenching caused by the degradation of the dye, a change in the position of the fluorescence band maximum due to the modification of the dye molecules or to the radiation-induced changes in the properties of the medium, as well as a fluorescence flare-up mediated by the changes in pH.