Intracellular Disassembly of Self-Quenched Nanoparticles Turns NIR Fluorescence on for Sensing Furin Activity in Cells and in Tumors

• Published in: Analytical chemistry (Washington) Vol. 87; no. 12; pp. 6180 - 6185
• Main Authors: Yuan, Yue, Zhang, Jia, Cao, Qinjingwen, An, Linna, Liang, Gaolin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 16.06.2015
• Subjects: Animals; Cell Line, Tumor; Cells; Disassembly; Dismantling; Enzyme Activation; Enzyme kinetics; Fluorescence; Fluorescent Dyes - chemistry; Furin - analysis; Furin - deficiency; Furin - metabolism; Humans; image analysis; Imaging; In vitro testing; Infrared Rays; Mice; Mice, Nude; Molecular Structure; Nanoparticles; Nanoparticles - chemistry; neoplasms; Neoplasms - enzymology; Neoplasms - pathology; patients; Rodents; Tumors
• ISSN: 0003-2700; 1520-6882; 1520-6882
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b01656

There has been no report on enzyme-controlled disassembly of self-quenched NIR fluorescent nanoparticles turning fluorescence on for specific detection/imaging of the enzyme’s activity in vitro and in vivo. Herein, we reported the rational design of new NIR probe 1 whose fluorescence signal was self-quenched upon reduction-controlled condensation and subsequent assembly of its nanoparticles (i.e., 1-NPs). Then disassembly of 1-NPs by furin turned the fluorescence on. Employing this enzymatic strategy, we successfully applied 1-NPs for NIR detection of furin in vitro and NIR imaging furin activity in living cells. Moreover, we also applied 1-NPs for discriminative NIR imaging of MDA-MB-468 tumors in nude mice. This NIR probe 1 might be further developed for tumor-targeted imaging in routine preclinical studies or even in patients in the future.