Real-time imaging of senescence in tumors with DNA damage

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 9; no. 1; p. 2102
• Main Authors: Wang, Ying, Liu, Jun, Ma, Xiaowei, Cui, Chao, Deenik, Philip R., Henderson, Paul K. P., Sigler, Ashton L., Cui, Lina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 14.02.2019; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 13/31; 14/19; 14/34; 59; 631/67/2321; 692/4017; Cancer; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; DNA damage; DNA probes; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Senescence; Tumors; Xenografts; β-Galactosidase
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-38511-z

Detection of cellular senescence is important not only in the study of senescence in various biological systems, but also in various practical applications such as image-guided surgical removal of senescent cells, as well as the monitoring of drug-responsiveness during cancer therapies. Due to the lack of suitable imaging probes for senescence detection, particularly in living subjects, we have developed an activatable near-infrared (NIR) molecular probe with far-red excitation, NIR emission, and high “turn-on” ratio upon senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SABG) activation. We present here the first successful demonstration of NIR imaging of DNA damage-induced senescence both in vitro and in human tumor xenograft models.