Fluorescent Phenotyping of Blood Cells Using a Differential Sensing Strategy: Differentiating Physiological Aging Stages and Neuro-Degenerative Disease Drugs

Blood continually contributes to the maintenance of homeostasis of the body and contains information regarding the health state of an individual. However, current hematological analyses predominantly rely on a limited number of CD markers and morphological analysis. In this work, differentially sensitive fluorescent compounds based on TCF scaffolds are introduced that are designed for fluorescent phenotyping of blood. Depending on their structures, TCF compounds displayed varied responses to reactive oxygen species, biothiols, redox-related biomolecules, and hemoglobin, which are the primary influential factors within blood. Contrary to conventional CD marker-based analysis, this unbiased fluorescent phenotyping method produces diverse fingerprints of the health state. Precise discrimination of blood samples from 37 mice was demonstrated based on their developmental stages, ranging from 10 to 19 weeks of age. Additionally, this fluorescent phenotyping method enabled the differentiation between drugs with distinct targets, serving as a simple yet potent tool for pharmacological analysis to understand the mode of action of various drugs.

Multifunction-Harnessed Afterglow Nanosensor for Molecular Imaging of Acute Kidney Injury In Vivo

Afterglow is superior to other optical modalities for biomedical applications in that it can exclude the autofluorescence background. Nevertheless, afterglow has rarely been applied to the high-contrast "off-to-on" activatable sensing scheme because the complicated afterglow systems hamper the additional inclusion of sensory functions while preserving the afterglow luminescence. Herein, a simple formulation of a multifunctional components-incorporated afterglow nanosensor (MANS) is developed for the superoxide-responsive activatable afterglow imaging of cisplatin-induced kidney injury. A multifunctional iridium complex (Ir-OTf) is designed to recover its photoactivities (phosphorescence and the ability of singlet oxygen-generating afterglow initiator) upon exposure to superoxide. To construct the nanoscopic afterglow detection system (MANS), Ir-OTf is incorporated with another multifunctional molecule (rubrene) in the polymeric micellar nanoparticle, where rubrene also plays dual roles as an afterglow substrate and a luminophore. The multiple functions covered by Ir-OTf and rubrene renders the composition of MANS quite simple, which exhibits superoxide-responsive "off-to-on" activatable afterglow luminescence for periods longer than 11 min after the termination of pre-excitation. Finally, MANS is successfully applied to the molecular imaging of cisplatin-induced kidney injury with activatable afterglow signals responsive to pathologically overproduced superoxide in a mouse model without autofluorescence background.

Mucin 1-mediated chemo-resistance in lung cancer cells

Paclitaxel (PTX) is a commonly used drug to treat diverse cancer types. However, its treatment can generate resistance and the mechanisms of PTX-resistance in lung cancers are still unclear. We demonstrated that non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLCs) survive PTX treatment. Compared with the progenitor NSCLC A549 cells, the PTX-resistant A549 cells (A549/PTX) displayed enhanced sphere-formation ability. The proportion of the cancer stem cell marker, aldehyde dehydrogenase-positive cells, and epithelial-mesenchymal transition signaling protein levels were also elevated in A549/PTX. Importantly, the levels of oncoproteins phosphoinositide-3 kinase/Akt, mucin 1 cytoplasmic domain (MUC1-C) and β-catenin were also significantly elevated in A549/PTX. Furthermore, nuclear translocation of MUC1-C and β-catenin increased in A549/PTX. The c-SRC protein, an activator of MUC1-C, was also overexpressed in A549/PTX. These observations led to the hypothesis that enhanced expression of MUC1-C is associated with stemness and PTX resistance in NSCLCs. To test this, we knocked down or overexpressed MUC1-C in A549/PTX and found that inhibition of MUC1-C expression coupled with PTX treatment was sufficient to reduce the sphere-forming ability and survival of A549/PTX. In summary, our in vitro and in vivo studies have revealed a potential mechanism of MUC1-C-mediated PTX resistance and provided insights into a novel therapeutic measure for lung cancers.