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Updated: Jan 3, 2026
Monitoring Tumor Metastases and Osteolytic Lesions with Bioluminescence and Micro CT Imaging
Published on: April 14, 2011
Cathepsin B Turning Bioluminescence "On" for Tumor Imaging
Yanhan Ni1, Zijuan Hai2, Tong Zhang3
1Hefei National Laboratory of Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Chemistry , University of Science and Technology of China , 96 Jinzhai Road , Hefei , Anhui 230026 , China.
Abstract:
Cathepsin B (CTSB) is a lysosomal protease, and several human cancers are reported highly expressing CTSB. Many optical methods have been developed for CTSB detection but not a bioluminescence (BL) probe. Herein, a CTSB-specific bioluminescence probe Val-Cit-AL was rationally designed for selectively sensing CTSB activity in vitro with a 67-fold "Turn-On" of BL intensity and an excellent limit of detection. Inhibitory experiments indicated that Val-Cit-AL is capable of sensing CTSB activity in living cells and tumors. We anticipate that Val-Cit-AL might be applied to diagnose CTSB-related diseases in rodent models or evaluate CTSB roles in more biological processes in the near future.
