Related Experiment Video For Hypoxia
Updated: Sep 2, 2025
Non-invasive In Vivo Fluorescence Optical Imaging of Inflammatory MMP Activity Using an Activatable Fluorescent Imaging Agent
Published on: May 8, 2017
Activatable near-infrared fluorescent probe triggered by nitroreductase for in vivo ulcerative colitis hypoxia
He-Song Wang1, Xiao-Fan Zhang1, Han Dong1
1Institute of Optical Functional Materials for Biomedical Imaging, School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Engineering, Shandong First Medical University & Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Taian, Shandong, 271016, PR China.
Abstract:
Ulcerative colitis is a prevalent inflammatory disease caused by the intestinal bacterial infection. And it is related to the hypoxic degrees in the colon microenvironment. Hypoxia, a condition of imbalance in O2 supply and consumption, is accompanied by the overexpressed level of nitroreductase (NTR). Therefore, the NTR detection has been widely applied for the diagnosis of hypoxia-related diseases. In this study, we developed a novel near-infrared fluorescent probe (IW-1) for NTR. Upon reaction with NTR, IW-1 exhibited a significant fluorescence off-on response at 740 nm with a low detection limit of 0.043 μg/mL. Confocal fluorescence imaging verified its ability to detect the overexpression of NTR in cancer cells. More significantly, IW-1 was applied for in vivo hypoxia imaging in tumors and dextran sulphate sodium (DSS)-induced ulcerative colitis mouse model. We expect that the probe may present a new tool for better understanding the biological functions of NTR as well as revealing essential information about hypoxia-related pathological processes, including cancer and ulcerative colitis.
