The United Innovation of Mengchao Hepatobiliary Technology Key Laboratory of Fujian Province, Mengchao Hepatobiliary Hospital of Fujian Medical University, Fuzhou 350025, P. R. China.
Nanoscale. 2017 Aug 3;9(30):10861-10868. doi: 10.1039/c7nr03564k.
Herein, a novel dual-responsive two-color fluorescent nanoprobe has been designed for the fluorescence activation imaging of cell apoptosis in living cells. The nanoprobe consists of a gold nanoparticle core functionalized with a dense layer of DNA aptamers and peptides, which shows high affinity and specific response to cytochrome c (Cyt c) and caspase-3, respectively. The formation of the aptamer-Cyt c complex and the cleavage of the specific peptide by caspase-3 can liberate the dye labelled aptamers and peptides from the surface of gold nanoparticles, and then recover their fluorescence. The turn-on and specific recognition properties of our nanoprobe allow for the sensitive and selective detection of Cyt c concentration and caspase-3 activity both in solutions and in living cells. The here proposed nanoprobe with the abilities of real-time monitoring the cell apoptosis and evaluating the apoptosis-related drug efficacy might serve as a potential interesting tool for studying the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis regulation or screening the apoptosis-based drugs.
本文设计了一种新型的双响应双色荧光纳米探针，用于活细胞中细胞凋亡的荧光激活成像。该纳米探针由金纳米颗粒核功能化的 DNA 适体和肽组成，分别对细胞色素 c（Cyt c）和半胱天冬酶-3 具有高亲和力和特异性响应。适体-Cyt c 复合物的形成和特定肽段被半胱天冬酶-3 的切割可以从金纳米粒子表面释放出标记染料的适体和肽段，然后恢复其荧光。我们的纳米探针的开启和特异性识别特性允许在溶液中和活细胞中灵敏且选择性地检测 Cyt c 浓度和半胱天冬酶-3 活性。该纳米探针具有实时监测细胞凋亡和评估凋亡相关药物疗效的能力，可作为研究凋亡调控分子机制或筛选基于凋亡的药物的潜在有趣工具。
