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Updated: Jun 17, 2026

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Nanosensors to Detect Protease Activity In Vivo for Noninvasive Diagnostics
Published on: July 16, 2018
Bioluminescent nanosensors for protease detection based upon gold nanoparticle-luciferase conjugates
Young-Pil Kim1, Weston L Daniel, Zuyong Xia
1Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Department of Radiology and Chemistry, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-5484, USA.
Abstract:
This communication reports the use of click chemistry to site-specifically conjugate bioluminescent Renilla luciferase proteins to gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) for sensing protease activity. The bioluminescent emission from luciferase was efficiently quenched by Au NPs, but significantly recovered after the proteolytic cleavage.

