Center for Blood Oxygen Transport and Hemostasis, Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland Baltimore School of Medicine, 670 W Baltimore St., Baltimore, Maryland 21201, USA.
Department of Chemical, Biochemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Maryland Baltimore County, 1000 Hiltop Circle, Baltimore, Maryland 21250, USA.
Chem Commun (Camb). 2021 Jun 24;57(51):6229-6232. doi: 10.1039/d1cc01410b.
Tracking the viral progression of SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 infected body tissues is an emerging need of the current pandemic. Imaging at near infrared second biological window (NIR-II) offers striking benefits over the other technologies to explore deep-tissue information. Here we design, synthesise and characterise a molecular probe that selectively targets the N-gene of SARS-CoV-2. Highly specific antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) were conjugated to lead sulfide quantum dots using a UV-triggered thiol-ene click chemistry for the recognition of viral RNA. Our ex vivo imaging studies demonstrated that the probe exhibits aggregation induced NIR-II emission only in presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA which can be attributed to the efficient hybridisation of the ASOs with their target RNA strands.
追踪 SARS-CoV-2 在 COVID-19 感染组织中的病毒进展是当前大流行的新兴需求。近红外二区（NIR-II）成像相对于其他技术具有明显优势，可以深入探索组织信息。在此，我们设计、合成并表征了一种分子探针，该探针能选择性地靶向 SARS-CoV-2 的 N 基因。采用紫外光触发的巯基-烯点击化学反应，将高度特异性的反义寡核苷酸（ASOs）连接到硫化铅量子点上，以识别病毒 RNA。我们的离体成像研究表明，只有在存在 SARS-CoV-2 RNA 的情况下，探针才会表现出聚集诱导的近红外二区发射，这归因于 ASOs 与其靶标 RNA 链的有效杂交。
