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Updated: Dec 29, 2025
In vivo Bioluminescence Imaging of Tumor Hypoxia Dynamics of Breast Cancer Brain Metastasis in a Mouse Model
Published on: October 3, 2011
A high-selectivity fluorescent probe for hypoxia imaging in cells and a tumor-bearing mouse model
Yue Wang1, Xiaoyue Han, Xia Zhang
1CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai 264003, China. lxchen@yic.ac.cn.
Abstract:
Nitroreductase (NTR) with a high expression level in tumors has been considered as a biomarker of highly aggressive hypoxia tumors. Thus, it is important to develop powerful tools for tumor hypoxia detection. Here, we developed a two-photon fluorescent probe hTP-NNO2 for NTR detection. The probe with one-step synthesis exhibited high yield. hTP-NNO2 showed high selectivity and sensitivity for NTR and the detection limit was as low as 43 ng mL-1. hTP-NNO2 also showed low cytotoxicity and high stability, indicating that hTP-NNO2 is suitable for NTR detection in real-time and in situ under physiological conditions. hTP-NNO2 was used for NTR imaging in hypoxia cells and the fluorescence intensity of hTP-NNO2 increased with decreasing oxygen concentration. Benefiting from the advantages of two-photon fluorescent probes, we performed NTR detection in deep brain tissue with an imaging depth of up to 100 μm. hTP-NNO2 was further successfully applied for NTR detection in zebrafish and tumors. These results indicated that we developed a promising fluorescence imaging tool for NTR detection in vitro and in vivo.
