Issue 30, 2017

A fluorescent turn on nanoprobe for simultaneous visualization of dual-targets involved in cell apoptosis and drug screening in living cells

Abstract

Herein, a novel dual-responsive two-color fluorescent nanoprobe has been designed for the fluorescence activation imaging of cell apoptosis in living cells. The nanoprobe consists of a gold nanoparticle core functionalized with a dense layer of DNA aptamers and peptides, which shows high affinity and specific response to cytochrome c (Cyt c) and caspase-3, respectively. The formation of the aptamer-Cyt c complex and the cleavage of the specific peptide by caspase-3 can liberate the dye labelled aptamers and peptides from the surface of gold nanoparticles, and then recover their fluorescence. The turn-on and specific recognition properties of our nanoprobe allow for the sensitive and selective detection of Cyt c concentration and caspase-3 activity both in solutions and in living cells. The here proposed nanoprobe with the abilities of real-time monitoring the cell apoptosis and evaluating the apoptosis-related drug efficacy might serve as a potential interesting tool for studying the molecular mechanisms of apoptosis regulation or screening the apoptosis-based drugs.

Graphical abstract: A fluorescent turn on nanoprobe for simultaneous visualization of dual-targets involved in cell apoptosis and drug screening in living cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
18 May 2017
Accepted
03 Jul 2017
First published
04 Jul 2017

Nanoscale, 2017,9, 10861-10868

A fluorescent turn on nanoprobe for simultaneous visualization of dual-targets involved in cell apoptosis and drug screening in living cells

X. Zhang, N. Liao, G. Chen, A. Zheng, Y. Zeng, X. Liu and J. Liu, Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 10861 DOI: 10.1039/C7NR03564K

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