Issue 47, 2019

A “Double-Locked” and enzyme-activated molecular probe for accurate bioimaging and hepatopathy differentiation

Abstract

Molecular probes activated by a single enzyme have been extensively used in bioimaging and disease diagnosis; however, imaging and identification in an accurate manner remains a challenge for such probes. Here, based on the specificity of enzyme recognition, we engineered a “double-locked” and enzyme-activated molecular probe (NML) for accurate bioimaging and hepatopathy differentiation. Triggered by the successive reactions with leucine aminopeptidase (LAP, first “key”) and monoamine oxidase (MAO, second “key”), the emissive fluorophore (NF) was released. NML can be activated only in the presence of both LAP and MAO and can be silenced when either enzyme is inhibited. Benefiting from the “double-locked” strategy, NML showed higher accuracy for imaging of drug-induced liver injury (DILI) than the “single-locked” probe. With serum testing, NML showed significant differences in mouse models of both CCl4-induced liver cirrhosis and DILI. Significantly, NML can be applied to accurately distinguish serum samples from clinical patients with different hepatopathies. Our smart molecular probe may hold great potential for hepatopathy diagnosis and clinical transformation.

Graphical abstract: A “Double-Locked” and enzyme-activated molecular probe for accurate bioimaging and hepatopathy differentiation

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
23 7 2019
Accepted
15 10 2019
First published
16 10 2019
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 10931-10936

A “Double-Locked” and enzyme-activated molecular probe for accurate bioimaging and hepatopathy differentiation

Y. Liu, L. Teng, C. Xu, H. Liu, S. Xu, H. Guo, L. Yuan and X. Zhang, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 10931 DOI: 10.1039/C9SC03628H

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