Bioluminescent-based imaging and quantification of glucose uptake in vivo

Abstract

Glucose is a major source of energy for most living organisms and its aberrant uptake is linked to many pathological conditions. However, our understanding of disease-associated glucose flux is limited due to the lack of robust tools. To date, positron emission tomography (PET) imaging remains the gold standard for measuring glucose uptake, and no optical tools exist for non-invasive longitudinal imaging of this important metabolite in in vivo settings. Here we report the development of a novel bioluminescent glucose uptake probe (BiGluc) for real-time, non-invasive longitudinal imaging of glucose absorption both in vitro and in vivo. In addition, we demonstrate that the sensitivity of our method is comparable with commonly used 18F-FDG-PET tracers and validate BiGluc as a tool for the identification of novel glucose transport inhibitors. The new imaging reagent enables a wide range of applications in the field of metabolism and drug development.

Fluorescent conjugates of D-glucosamine with 3-thiazolylcoumarins: synthesis, characterization and potential use as cell imaging agents

“…The reporter groups are often attached via the linkers, although the data on their effect on cellular uptake are limited [17,40]. One-or two-ring heterocycles conjugated directly to glucosamine [7,11,12,24] or its 1-hydroxyl group [18] are transported by GLUTs. The conjugation can be performed via the alkylation of glucose OH-groups [6,17,18,40], S-alkylation of its thioanalogs [25] or N-acylation of amino derivatives [7,19,26].…”

“…3-Propargyl-D-glucose was proposed as a reagent for imaging the glucose uptake in living cells by stimulated Raman scattering [6]. Bioluminescent imaging based on firefly luciferin/luciferase system employs the luciferase producing tissues and triphenylphosphinemodified luciferin and azide-modified glucosamine, the components of Staudinger ligation [7].…”

Molecular Engineering of NIR‐II Fluorophores for Improved Biomedical Detection

“…[65] Because they do not require external excitation, they can better improve the signal-to-noise ratio.B io-tracking experiments can be performed with bioluminescence since luciferase can be transfected. [71] On the other hand, chemiluminescence probes are also sought after for their capacities in responding to biological microenvironments. [72] To bathochromically shift the emission wavelength of the bioluminescence or chemiluminescence probes,n ew substrates,e fficient energy transfer systems,ormutant luciferase are highly desired.…”

Responsive principles and applications of smart materials in biosensing

“…Glucose is an indispensable energy source for the metabolism in the body, blood glucose must maintain in certain level to sustain the living of organs and tissues in the body, and abnormal blood glucose levels may cause many diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cancers [ [28] , [29] , [30] ]. Therefore, reliable detection of blood glucose is very important.…”