Real-Time Specific Light-Up Sensing of Transferrin Receptor: Image-Guided Photodynamic Ablation of Cancer Cells through Controlled Cytomembrane Disintegration

Ruoyu Zhang, Guangxue Feng, Chong Jing Zhang, Xiaolei Cai, Xiamin Cheng, Bin Liu*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

52 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Transferrin receptor (TfR) represents a unique target for specific imaging of cancer cells and targeted delivery of therapeutic reagents. Detection and qualification of TfR is thus of great importance for cancer diagnosis and therapy. In this contribution, a light-up probe TPETH-2T7 was developed by conjugating a red-emissive photosensitizer with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics to a TfR-targeting peptide T7. The probe is almost nonemissive by itself, but it gives turn-on fluorescence in the presence of TfR with a detection limit of 0.45 μg/mL. Cellular experiments show that the probe specifically binds to TfR-overexpressed cancer cells. Real-time imaging results reveal that the probe stains the MDA-MB-231 cell membrane in 30 min, which is followed by probe internalization. Experiments on image-guided photodynamic cancer ablation show that the therapeutic performance is better when TPETH-2T7 is localized on the cell membrane as compared to that being internalized into cells. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) study reveals that cytomembrane disintegration allows quick ablation of MDA-MB-231 cells.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)4841-4848
Number of pages8
JournalAnalytical Chemistry
Volume88
Issue number9
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 3 May 2016
Externally publishedYes

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Real-Time Specific Light-Up Sensing of Transferrin Receptor: Image-Guided Photodynamic Ablation of Cancer Cells through Controlled Cytomembrane Disintegration'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this