The development of a biotin-guided and mitochondria-targeting fluorescent probe for detecting SO2 precisely in cancer cells.

Fluorescence is widely used to detect functional groups and ions, and peptides are used in various fields due to their excellent biological activity. In recent years, research on fluorescent amino acids has intensified, especially with the natural fluorescent amino acids such as tryptophan (Trp), tyrosine (Tyr) and phenylalanine (Phe). They use their respective fluorophores to undergo π–π transition under excitation with light of a particular wavelength, and then release a large number of photons, which produce fluorescence. Thus, they are widely used as building units to enhance the fluorescence properties of other molecules. Peptide-based fluorescence technology has expanded the research in the field of biochemistry. Peptide-based fluorescence involving fluorescent amino acids not only retains the biocompatibility of peptides, but also relies on their fluorescent groups to enhance the fluorescent properties of the peptide itself, breaking the original limitations and connecting different fields to complement each other. This review summarizes the luminescence mechanism and fluorescent properties of the natural fluorescent amino acids and focuses on the fluorescence emission of peptides embedded with these fluorescent amino acids or fluorophores. Finally, we summarize the applications of peptide-based fluorescence in sensing drug release, metal ions and biomolecules, and present new challenges and expectations for the future development in this field.

A review on recent advances in amino acid and peptide-based fluorescence and its potential applications

Development and Challenge of Fluorescent Probes for Bioimaging Applications: From Visualization to Diagnosis

Targeted tumor imaging in vivo has been one of the main challenges in the early stage of cancer diagnosis and therapy. However, few contrast probes are available to specifically respond to tumor environments. The aim was to investigate porphyrin-1,8-naphthalimide derivative (APTSPP-2NI) as a potential tumor-targeting fluorescent probe in vitro and in vivo. A tumor-targeting APTSPP-2NI was synthesized by the incorporation of water-soluble 5-(4’-aminophenyl)-10,15,20-tris(4’-sulfonato-phenyl) porphyrin (APTSPP) as a tumor-targeting group into N-butyl-4-ethyldiamino-1,8-naphthalene imide (NI) fluorescence molecule herein. The derivative was further characterized and its properties in vitro and in vivo including the cell cytotoxicity, cell uptake of tumor cells and fluorescent imaging were also evaluated. Experiment results indicated that APTSPP-2NI possessed the low cell cytotoxicity and good tumor-targeting property to the B16F10 melanoma cells. Moreover, APTSPP-2NI can be taken up highly by B16F10 melanoma tumors and then achieve the good green and red fluorescent imaging in B16F10 melanoma tumors. Therefore APTSPP-2NI can be considered as a potential tumor-targeting dual-mode enhanced probe in fluorescent imaging in vitro and in vivo.

Tumor-Targeting Fluorescent Probe Based on 1,8-Naphthalimide and Porphyrin Groups

The multi-modal imaging contrast agent has been attracted an increased interest to the tumor detecting and diagnosis in these recent years since the multi-modal imaging technology combines the adva...

Guo Ping Yan

Papers

Polypeptide-rhodamine B probes containing laminin/fibronectin receptor-targeting sequence (YIGSR/RGD) for fluorescent imaging in cancers

Tumor-Targeting Fluorescent Probe Based on 1,8-Naphthalimide and Porphyrin Groups