College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Qianjin Street 2699, Changchun 130012, China.
J Mater Chem B. 2020 Sep 14;8(34):7652-7658. doi: 10.1039/d0tb01366h. Epub 2020 Aug 11.
Nucleolus imaging is important for the understanding of gene expression, proliferation, and growth of cells. Traditional nucleoli localization mainly relies on the use of RNA fluorescent probes which are required in large amounts. These probes also have low selectivity, thus causing the generated images to have high background noise and the localization of nucleoli to become vague. In the present paper, a novel probe for nucleoli localization, BEB-A, which can specifically bind to RNA via the chain reaction of endogenous cysteine (Cys), was designed and developed. In addition to its mitochondria-targeting ability, the BEB-A probe could be used in the imaging of Cys in the cytoplasm, and its product, BEB-OH, could quickly penetrate into the cell nucleus to combine with nucleolar RNA to generate strong red fluorescence signals. The luminescence property and RNA-binding capability of the probe were also investigated via theoretical calculations and molecular docking simulations. This work presents a tool that can be applied to analyze the variation of Cys in mitochondria and RNA in cells.
核仁成像对于理解细胞的基因表达、增殖和生长非常重要。传统的核仁定位主要依赖于大量使用 RNA 荧光探针，而这些探针选择性低，导致生成的图像背景噪声高，核仁定位模糊。在本文中，设计并开发了一种新型的核仁定位探针 BEB-A，它可以通过内源性半胱氨酸（Cys）的链反应特异性地与 RNA 结合。除了具有靶向线粒体的能力外，BEB-A 探针还可以用于细胞质中 Cys 的成像，其产物 BEB-OH 可以快速穿透细胞进入细胞核与核仁 RNA 结合，产生强烈的红色荧光信号。还通过理论计算和分子对接模拟研究了探针的发光特性和 RNA 结合能力。这项工作提供了一种可用于分析线粒体中 Cys 和细胞中 RNA 变化的工具。
