Near-Infrared Fluorescence Probe for Specific Detection of Acetylcholinesterase and Imaging in Live Cells and Zebrafish

Abstract

Acetylcholinesterase (AChE) is a pivotal enzyme that is closely related with multiple neurological diseases, such as brain disorders or alterations in the neurotransmission and cancer. The development of convenient methods for imaging AChE activity in biological samples is very important to understand its mechanisms and functions in a living system. Herein, a fluorescent probe exhibiting emission in the near-infrared (NIR) region is developed to detect AChE and visualize biological AChE activities. This probe exhibits a quick response time, reasonable detection limit, and a large Stokes shift accompanied by the NIR emission. The probe has much better reactivity toward AChE than butyrylcholinesterase, which is one of the significant interfering substances. The outstanding specificity of the probe is proved by cellular imaging AChE activity and successful mapping in different regions of zebrafish. Such an effective probe can greatly contribute to ongoing efforts to design emission probes that have distinct properties to assay AChE in biological systems.

Organic Semiconducting Nanoparticles for Biosensor: A Review

“…In recent years, biosensor technology has experienced significant development due to advances in biomedicine and computational science [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Biosensors have found widespread use in medicine and biology, from detecting disease biomarkers [ 5 , 6 ] and tracking drug release [ 7 ], to ion imaging [ 8 , 9 , 10 ] and fluorescence imaging in living animals [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. These applications have greatly improved the imaging resolution and can assist physicians in making more accurate disease diagnoses.…”

Pseudo-irreversible butyrylcholinesterase inhibitors: Structure–activity relationships, computational and crystallographic study of the N-dialkyl O-arylcarbamate warhead

“…Moreover, AChE and BChE can be used as biomarkers for detection of Alzheimer's disease [1,31,32], Hirschsprung's disease [33,34] and multiple sclerosis [35,36]. To date, only a few AChE [37][38][39][40][41][42] and BChE [43][44][45][45][46][47] fluorescent probes and histochemical methods [48] have enabled tissue ChE location and activity determination. Accordingly, the development of new chemical probes for investigating the roles of ChEs in physiological and pathophysiological processes in vitro and ex vivo is required by biologists and neurobiologists [49][50][51].…”

A S-substituted Nile Blue-derived bifunctional near-infrared fluorescent probe for in vivo carboxylesterase imaging-guided photodynamic therapy of hepatocellular carcinoma

“…5,6 In the past years, many types of fluorescent probes have been synthesized for the detection and imaging of CEs. 7,8 However, most of the existing fluorescent probes use ester bonds as the recognition site, which may interfere with the accuracy of CE detection due to their potential mutual interference with acetylcholinesterase (AChE) 9,10 and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). 11,12 To address this limitation, several fluorescent probes have been designed for detection of CEs by combining the carbamate unit with fluorophores using self-eliminating spacers with different substituted groups.…”