title: Intracellular Disassembly of Self-Quenched Nanoparticles Turns NIR Fluorescence on for Sensing Furin Activity in Cells and in Tumors.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Qinjingwen
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Linna
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: An
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Soft Matter Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
authors.forename: Gaolin
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004789:Enzyme Activation; D005453:Fluorescence; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000737:chemistry*; D045683:Furin / Q000032:analysis* / Q000172:deficiency / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007259:Infrared Rays; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D015394:Molecular Structure; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D045683:Furin