Issue 5, 2017

In vivo imaging of leucine aminopeptidase activity in drug-induced liver injury and liver cancer via a near-infrared fluorescent probe

Abstract

The liver, a main detoxification organ, has evolved a complex enzymatic system to respond to multiple pathological conditions, in which leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) has been reported to participate in detoxifying cisplatin in hepatoma cells and contribute to the intrinsic drug resistance. In vivo imaging of LAP activity in liver disease models is thus helpful to further understand the function of LAP in detoxification and medicine, but such an imaging approach is still lacking. Herein, we develop a selective and sensitive near-infrared fluorescent probe (HCAL) for this purpose. Using the probe, combined with confocal fluorescence imaging, we disclose the upregulations of LAP in acetaminophen-induced liver injury and tumor-bearing mice models. Supplementary acetylcysteine can suppress this upregulation, revealing that the LAP increase may be connected with a deficiency in biothiols. Moreover, HCAL has been used to image LAP in hepatoma cells, tumor tissues and xenograft tumor mice models successfully. These results demonstrate that HCAL may be a promising tool for studying the function of LAP in LAP-associated liver diseases.

Graphical abstract: In vivo imaging of leucine aminopeptidase activity in drug-induced liver injury and liver cancer via a near-infrared fluorescent probe

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
30 Dec 2016
Accepted
18 Feb 2017
First published
02 Mar 2017
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2017,8, 3479-3483

In vivo imaging of leucine aminopeptidase activity in drug-induced liver injury and liver cancer via a near-infrared fluorescent probe

X. He, L. Li, Y. Fang, W. Shi, X. Li and H. Ma, Chem. Sci., 2017, 8, 3479 DOI: 10.1039/C6SC05712H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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