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Updated: Jun 17, 2025

A Label-free Technique for the Spatio-temporal Imaging of Single Cell Secretions
Published on: November 23, 2015
Antibody-based near-infrared fluorogenic probes for wash-free imaging of cell-surface proteins
Haoting Wang1, Jiaqi Yan1, Wenchao Wang1
1Institute of Drug Metabolism and Pharmaceutical Analysis, College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China.
Background:
Cell-surface proteins, which are closely associated with various physiological and pathological processes, have drawn much attention in drug discovery and disease diagnosis. Thus, wash-free imaging of the target cell-surface protein under its native environment is critical and helpful for early detection and prognostic evaluation of diseases.
Results:
To minimize the interference from autofluorescence and fit the penetration depth towards tissue samples, we developed a fluorogenic antibody-based probe, Ab-Cy5.5, which will liberate > 5-fold turn-on near-infrared (NIR) emission in the presence of its target antigen within 10 min.
Significance:
By taking advantage of the fluorescence-quenched dimeric H-aggregation of Cy5.5, Ab-Cy5.5 with Cy5.5 attached at the N-terminus showed negligible background signal, allowing direct imaging of the target cell-surface protein in both living cells and tissue samples without washing.
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