Enzyme-Specific Doxorubicin Drug Beacon as Drug-Resistant Theranostic Molecular Probes

We report here on the use of anticancer drug doxorubicin (Dox) to construct a Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET)-based theranostic molecular probe by covalently linking together through a lysine junction a fluorescent drug, a black hole quencher, and a cell-penetrating peptide. We show that upon cleavage by the target lysosomal protease cathepsin B (CatB) the designed drug beacon could release the fluorescent drug serving as an indicator for CatB. Our cell studies suggest that the drug-beacon design can help to circumvent the Dox drug resistance in NCI/ADR-Res ovarian cancer cells, showing significant improvement in cell cytotoxicity compared to the free drug. We believe our design opens up new opportunities to exploit the new functional and structural features of anticancer drugs in addition to their characteristic cytotoxicity.