Kansas State University, Department of Chemistry, 213 CBC Building, Manhattan, KS, USA.
Photochem Photobiol Sci. 2014 Feb;13(2):231-40. doi: 10.1039/c3pp50260k.
Numerous proteases are known to be necessary for cancer development and progression including matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), tissue serine proteases, and cathepsins. The goal of this research is to develop an Fe/Fe3O4 nanoparticle-based system for clinical diagnostics, which has the potential to measure the activity of cancer-associated proteases in biospecimens. Nanoparticle-based "light switches" for measuring protease activity consist of fluorescent cyanine dyes and porphyrins that are attached to Fe/Fe3O4 nanoparticles via consensus sequences. These consensus sequences can be cleaved in the presence of the correct protease, thus releasing a fluorescent dye from the Fe/Fe3O4 nanoparticle, resulting in highly sensitive (down to 1 × 10(-16) mol l(-1) for 12 proteases), selective, and fast nanoplatforms (required time: 60 min).
已知许多蛋白酶对于癌症的发生和发展是必需的，包括基质金属蛋白酶（MMPs）、组织丝氨酸蛋白酶和组织蛋白酶。本研究的目的是开发一种基于 Fe/Fe3O4 纳米粒子的系统用于临床诊断，该系统有可能测量生物标本中与癌症相关的蛋白酶的活性。用于测量蛋白酶活性的基于纳米粒子的“光开关”由荧光菁染料和卟啉组成，通过共识序列连接到 Fe/Fe3O4 纳米粒子上。在存在正确的蛋白酶的情况下，这些共识序列可以被切割，从而将荧光染料从 Fe/Fe3O4 纳米粒子中释放出来，从而产生高度敏感的（对于 12 种蛋白酶，低至 1×10(-16) mol l(-1)）、选择性强且快速的纳米平台（所需时间：60 分钟）。
