A novel off–on fluorescent probe for sensitive imaging of mitochondria-specific nitroreductase activity in living tumor cells. Issue 20 (5th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Huang, Bo; Chen, Wen; Kuang, Yong-Qing; Liu, Wei; Liu, Xian-Jun; Tang, Li-Juan; Jiang, Jian-Hui
• Is Part Of: Organic & biomolecular chemistry. Volume 15:Issue 20(2017)
• Page Start: 4383
• Page End: 4389
• Publication Date: 2017-05-05
• Subjects: Chemistry, Organic -- Periodicals; Bioorganic chemistry -- Periodicals; Chemistry, Physical organic -- Periodicals; 547
• DOI: 10.1039/c7ob00781g
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1477-0520

Abstract

Abstract : We have developed a novel fluorescent probe of a benzoindocyanine probe (BICP), which is able to target mitochondria and realize sensitive and selective detection of NTR. Abstract : Sensitive and selective detection and imaging of nitroreductase (NTR) in cancer cells is of great importance for better understanding their biological functions. Since there are a few fluorescent probes concerning NTR activity specifically located in mitochondria, we developed a novel fluorescent benzoindocyanine probe (BICP) for mitochondrial NTR activity monitoring and imaging via extending a benzoindole moiety into a benzoindocyanine based fluorophore (BICF) with a strong intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) effect and incorporating 4-nitrobenzyl as a fluorescence-quenching and enzyme-responsive moiety. Live cell imaging of HeLa and A549 demonstrates that the developed BICP is able to realize sensitive and selective mitochondrial NTR activity probing with high-contrast "off–on" fluorescence. These findings implied the great potential of the developed probe for monitoring mitochondrial-specific NTR activities in living cells and related applications in cell biology.