Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 10, 2025

Live Imaging of the Mitochondrial Glutathione Redox State in Primary Neurons using a Ratiometric Indicator
Published on: October 20, 2021
A turn on fluorescent assay for γ-glutamyltransferase activity and its application in biological imaging
Jian Gao1, Wenjuan Chen1, Weixuan Lin1
1Key Laboratory of Optic-electric Sensing and Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, MOE, Shandong Key Laboratory of Biochemical Analysis, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science in Universities of Shandong, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering. Qingdao University of Science and Technology, Qingdao, 266042, China.
Abstract:
γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT) is widely presented in living cells and overexpressed in many tumor tissues. Therefore, it is generally considered as an important biomarker for the detection of tumor, especially for liver cancer. Accurate determination of its activity is helpful for early diagnosis and treatment of related diseases. In this work, a "turn on" fluorescent probe NSA-GGT for the detection of GGT activity based on glutamine bond was designed and synthesized by employing dansylamino as fluorophore. The probe shows good water solubility and can be well dispersed in aqueous buffer. After incubated with GGT in phosphate buffer, the fluorescence of NSA-GGT centered at ∼523 nm increased over 25-fold. This sensing pattern exhibits an intriguing sensing sensitivity for GGT, and has good performance on intracellular GGT staining, serving as a promising candidate for GGT measurement. Subsequent biological experiments showed that probe NSA-GGT could also be used for fluorescent imaging of GGT activity in living cells and animal tissues.

