2. Academic Validation
  3. Amino-Acid-Encoded Supramolecular Nanostructures for Persistent Bioluminescence Imaging of Tumor

Amino-Acid-Encoded Supramolecular Nanostructures for Persistent Bioluminescence Imaging of Tumor

  • Adv Healthc Mater. 2024 Jun 21:e2401244. doi: 10.1002/adhm.202401244.
Yifan Huang 1 2,  Zian Yu 2,  Jiancheng Peng 2,  Qin Yu 2,  Hao Xu 2 3,  Miaomiao Yang 4,  Sijie Yuan 2,  Qianzijing Zhang 2,  Yanyun Yang 2,  Jin Gao 1 5,  Yue Yuan 1 2 5
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Department of Radiation Oncology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, China.
  • 2 Key Laboratory of Precision and Intelligent Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230026, China.
  • 3 Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Medical Physics and Technology, Institute of Health and Medical Technology, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, Anhui, 230031, China.
  • 4 Clinical Pathology Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, 230022, China.
  • 5 Hefei Ion Medical Center, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230088, China.
PMID: 38934340 DOI: 10.1002/adhm.202401244
Abstract

Bioluminescence imaging (BLI) is a powerful technique for noninvasive monitoring of biological processes and cell transplantation. Nonetheless, the application of D-luciferin, which is widely employed as a bioluminescent probe, is restricted in long-term in vivo tracking due to its short half-life. This study presents a novel approach using amino acid-encoded building blocks to accumulate and preserve luciferin within tumor cells, through a supramolecular self-assembly strategy. The building block platform called Cys(SEt)-X-CBT (CXCBT, with X representing any amino acid) utilizes a covalent-noncovalent hybrid self-assembly mechanism to generate diverse luciferin-containing nanostructures in tumor cells after glutathione reduction. These nanostructures exhibit efficient tumor-targeted delivery as well as sequence-dependent well-designed morphologies and prolonged bioluminescence performance. Among the selected Amino acids (X = Glu, Lys, Leu, Phe), Cys(SEt)-Lys-CBT (CKCBT) exhibits the superior long-lasting bioluminescence signal (up to 72 h) and good biocompatibility. This study demonstrates the potential of amino-acid-encoded supramolecular self-assembly as a convenient and effective method for developing BLI probes for long-term biological tracking and disease imaging.

Keywords

amino acid encoding; nanostructures; persistent bioluminescence; self‐assembly.

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