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There is growing interest in applying bioluminescence for imaging varies biological processes in life sciences due to its high resolution, selectivity, and signal/noise ratio (no need of external light excitation). Among the diverse bioluminescence systems, firefly luciferin–luciferase system is considered to be the most popular one for bioimaging...
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... Red and NIR light show excellent penetration into biological tissues, [11] thus it is worth developing a red-shifted bioluminescence imaging system to meet the demand for deep tissue imaging. At present, there are mainly two typical approaches to generating red-shifted bioluminescence, one is to optimize the electron "push-pull" system of luciferin, and the other is to build extended conjugation in d-luciferin (Table 1). For instance, Reddy et al. synthesized 5',6'-fused cyclic alkylaminoluciferins (CycLuc) by substituting the phenolic hydroxyl group of d-luciferin with cyclic alkylamino groups. ...Similar publications
The firefly species described by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 and 1767 (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) were checked to determine the actual dates of publication. Nine out of twelve species were originally described in 1758 and not in 1767 as published in the majority of firefly literature. Lampyris hespera Linnaeus, 1767 as a junior synonym of Aspisoma lampyris...
Left alone, Photinus carolinus fireflies flash without an intrinsic period, making it uncertain when they may flash next. Yet when gathering at the mating lek in large swarms, these fireflies transition into predictability, synchronizing with their neighbors with a rhythmic periodicity. Here we propose a mechanism for emergence of synchrony and per...
Complex systems pervade nature and form the core of many technological applications. An exciting feature of these systems is that they exhibit a wide range of temporal behaviors, ranging from collective motion, synchronization, pattern formation, and chaos, among others. This has not only caught the attention of scientists, but also the interest of...
The High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC [1]), an upgrade of the LHC, is set to become operational in 2029, aiming to achieve instantaneous luminosities 5–7.5 times larger than the nominal value of the LHC. However, unlocking the full physics potential at this much higher luminosity level necessitates a tenfold increase in the data bandwid...
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... Imaging of during in vivo conditions reflect life systems more appropriately. Thus, development of smaller systems and probes allowing imaging of alive organisms may incorporate in a variety of research fields such as gene expression to behavior (51,52). Use of bioluminescence in medical research is not limited to the mentioned research fields in this review. ...
Autophagy plays a crucial role in tumorigenesis and progression, but current approaches to visualize it in vivo show limited precision due to their single-analyte-responsive mode. Hence, by simultaneously employing dual autophagy enzymes Atg4B and cathepsin B to trigger the in situ formation of luciferin, we herein propose a strategy for precise autophagy bioluminescence imaging. An Atg4B-responsive peptide Ac-Thr-Phe-Gly-d-Cys (TFGC) and a cathepsin B-activatable compound Ac-Lys-Gly-Arg-Arg-CBT (KGRR-CBT) were rationally designed. During tumor autophagy, these two compounds were uptaken by cancer cells and cleaved by their corresponding enzymes to yield d-cysteine and 2-cyano-6-aminobenzothiazole, respectively, which underwent a CBT-Cys click reaction to yield d-aminoluciferin, turning the bioluminescence “on”. The responsiveness of these two compounds toward the two enzymes was tested in vitro, and the ability to turn bioluminescence “on” was validated in living cancer cells and in vivo. We anticipate that our precise autophagy imaging strategy could be further applied for the diagnosis of autophagy-related diseases in the near future.
Simple and effective detection methods for circulating tumor cells are essential for early detection and progression monitoring of tumors. The use of DNA aptamer and bioluminescence is expected to be a key tool for the simple, effective, and sensitive detection of tumor cells. Herein, we designed multifunctional protein nanoparticles for the detection of tumor cells using DNA aptamer and bioluminescence. Fusion proteins (ELP-poly(d)-POIs), composed of elastin-like polypeptide (ELP) fused with protein of interests (POIs) via poly(aspartic acid) (poly(d)), formed the protein nanoparticles based on the temperature responsivity of ELP sequences, leading to multiply displayed POIs on the protein nanoparticles. In the present study, we focused on porcine circovirus type 2 replication initiation protein (Rep), which covalently conjugated with DNA aptamers, and NanoLuc luciferase (Nluc), which emitted a strong bioluminescence, as POIs. ELP-poly(d)-Rep and ELP-poly(d)-Nluc were constructed and formed the protein nanoparticles with multiply displayed Nluc and Rep (DNA aptamer) that amplified the bioluminescence signal and tumor recognition ability. Mucin-1 (MUC1)-overexpressing human breast tumor MCF7 cells and MUC1-recognizing aptamer (MUC1 aptamer) were selected as models. The MUC1 aptamer-conjugated protein nanoparticles exhibited a 13.7-fold higher bioluminescence signal to MCF-7 cells than to human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK293) cells, which express low levels of MUC1. Furthermore, the protein nanoparticles could detect up to 70.7 cells/mL of MCF-7 cells from a cell suspension containing HEK-293. The protein nanoparticles with multiple Rep and Nluc show a great potential as a material for detecting CTCs.
Chemotherapy has remained an effective and predominant cancer treatment for the past decades, but is hampered by its low response rate and severe systemic toxicity. Combination chemotherapies are proposed to address these issues, yet their therapeutic outcomes are still far from satisfactory. Thus, it is urgent to develop novel strategies to promote tumor chemosensitivity while reducing toxic side effects of chemotherapeutics. Herein, employing a rationally designed peptide conjugate Nap‐Phe‐Phe‐Lys(SA‐AZD8055)‐Tyr(H2PO3)‐OH (Nap‐AZD‐Yp), a novel approach of simultaneous intracellular nanofiber formation and autophagy inducer release is proposed for selectively sensitizing tumor to chemotherapy. Upon sequential catalyses of alkaline phosphatase and carboxylesterase, Nap‐AZD‐Yp undergoes nanosphere‐to‐nanofiber transition accompanied by autophagy inducer AZD8055 release in cancer cells. Cell experiments show enhanced endocytosis of anticancer drug doxorubicin and inhibition of cell migration due to the intracellular nanofiber formation. The released AZD8055 further activates excessive autophagy of cancer cells, sensitizing them to chemotherapy. Animal experiment results suggest Nap‐AZD‐Yp can significantly enhance the therapeutic effects of doxorubicin on tumors while mitigate its toxic adverse effects on normal tissues. It is anticipated that the “smart” concept in this work c be widely employed to develop novel combinational therapies for the treatment of cancers and other diseases in near future.
