This review summarizes the emerging two-dimensional (2D) monoelemental materials (Xenes) with unique 2D structures and their fascinating properties and showcases their potential in biomedical applications.
Despite encouraging results from preliminary studies of anticancer therapies, the lack of tumor specificity remains an important issue in the modern pharmaceutical industry. New findings indicate that biotin or biotin-conjugates could be favorably assimilated by tumor cells that over-express biotin-selective transporters. Furthermore, biotin can form stable complexes with avidin and its bacterial counterpart streptavidin. The strong bridging between avidin and biotin moieties on other molecules is a proven adaptable tool with broad biological applications. Under these circumstances, a biotin moiety is certainly an attractive choice for live-cell imaging, biosensing, and target delivery.
We
report here a mitochondria-targetable pH-sensitive probe that
allows for a quantitative measurement of mitochondrial pH changes,
as well as the real-time monitoring of pH-related physiological effects
in live cells. This system consists of a piperazine-linked naphthalimide
as a fluorescence off–on signaling unit, a cationic triphenylphosphonium
group for mitochondrial targeting, and a reactive benzyl chloride
subunit for mitochondrial fixation. It operates well in a mitochondrial
environment within whole cells and displays a desirable off–on
fluorescence response to mitochondrial acidification. Moreover, this
probe allows for the monitoring of impaired mitochondria undergoing
mitophagic elimination as the result of nutrient starvation. It thus
allows for the monitoring of the organelle-specific dynamics associated
with the conversion between physiological and pathological states.
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