Acridine orange

When the pH of the environment is 3.5, acridine orange becomes excited by blue light (460 nm). When acridine orange is excited by blue light, the fluorescent dye can differentially stain human cells green and prokaryotic cells orange (600 nm), allowing for rapid detection with a fluorescent microscope. The differential staining capability of acridine orange provides quick scanning of specimen smears at lower magnifications of 400x compared to Gram stains that operate at 1000x magnification. The differentiation of cells is aided by a dark background that allows colored organisms to be easily detected. The sharp contrast provides a mechanism for counting the number of organisms present in a sample. When acridine orange binds to DNA, the dye exhibits a maximum excitation at 502 nm producing a maximum emission of 525 nm. When bound to RNA, acridine orange displays a maximum emission value of 650 nm and a maximum excitation value of 460 nm. The maximum excitation and emission value that occur when acridine orange is bound to RNA are the result of electrostatic interactions and the intercalation between the acridine molecule and nucleic acid-base pairs present within RNA and DNA.[2]

Acridine dyes are prepared via the condensation of 1,3-diaminobenzene with suitable benzaldehydes. Acridine orange is derived from dimethylaminobenzaldehyde and N,N-dimethyl-1,3-diaminobenzene.[3] It may also be prepared by the Eschweiler–Clarke reaction of 3,6-Acridinediamine.

Acridine orange is derived from the organic molecule acridine, which was first discovered by Carl Grabe and Heinrich Caro, who isolated acridine by boiling coal in Germany during the late nineteenth century. Acridine has antimicrobial factors useful in drug-resistant bacteria and isolating bacteria in various environments.[4] Acridine orange in the mid-twentieth century was used to examine the microbial content found in soil and direct counts of aquatic bacteria. Additionally, the method of acridine orange direct count (AODC) proved useful in the enumeration of bacteria found within landfills. Direct epifluorescent filter technique (DEFT) using acridine orange is a method known for examining the microbial content within food and water. The use of acridine orange in clinical applications has become widely accepted, mainly focusing on highlighting bacteria in blood cultures. Past and present studies comparing acridine orange staining with blind subcultures for the detection of positive blood cultures showed that the acridine orange is a simple, inexpensive, rapid staining procedure that appears to be more sensitive than the Gram stain for detecting microorganisms in cerebrospinal fluid and other clinical and non-clinical materials.[3]

Acridine orange has been widely accepted and used in many different areas, such as epifluorescence microscopy, and the assessment of sperm chromatin quality. Acridine orange is useful in the rapid screening of ordinarily sterile specimens. When acridine orange is used with flow cytometry, the differential stain is used to measure DNA denaturation[5] and the cellular content of DNA versus RNA[6] in individual cells, or detect DNA damage in infertile sperm cells.[7] Acridine orange is recommended for the use of fluorescent microscopic detection of microorganisms in smears prepared from clinical and non-clinical materials. Acridine orange staining has to be performed at an acidic pH to obtain the differential staining, which allows bacterial cells to stain orange and tissue components to stain yellow or green.[8]

Acridine orange is also used to stain acidic vacuoles (lysosomes, endosomes, and autophagosomes), RNA, and DNA in living cells. This method is a cheap and easy way to study lysosomal vacuolation, autophagy, and apoptosis. The emission color of acridine orange changes from yellow, to orange, to red as the pH drops in an acidic vacuole of the living cell. Under specific conditions of ionic strength and concentration, acridine orange emits red fluorescence when it binds to RNA by stacking interactions, and green fluorescence when it binds to DNA by intercalation. Depending on acridine orange concentration, nuclei may emit yellowish-green fluorescence in untreated cells, and green fluorescence when RNA synthesis is inhibited by compounds such as chloroquine.[9] Acridine orange can be used in conjunction with ethidium bromide or propidium iodide to differentiate between viable, apoptotic, and necrotic cells. Additionally, acridine orange may be used on blood samples causing bacterial DNA to fluoresce, aiding in the clinical diagnosis of bacterial infections, such as meningitis.[3]