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Updated: Aug 19, 2026

Real Time Monitoring of Intracellular Bile Acid Dynamics Using a Genetically Encoded FRET-based Bile Acid Sensor
Published on: January 4, 2016
Engineering a water-soluble cyanine-based probe for plasma butyrylcholinesterase detection and liver injury
Kexin Chen1, Zhiyang Yuwen2, Chenxi Lu1
1Key Laboratory of Chemical Biology and Traditional Chinese Medicine Research (Ministry of Education), College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410081, P. R. China. liuhongwen@hnu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
A water-soluble NIR probe, Cy5-QI-BChE, was developed for early liver injury assessment. Its dual quaternary ammonium salts enhanced hydrophilicity to preserve BChE activity in plasma. The quinolinium cation enabled a d-PET-based 72-fold fluorescence enhancement prior to saturation and improved ROS stability via steric hindrance. The probe showed a 1.4 U mL-1 LOD for BChE. In an APAP-induced liver injury mouse model, plasma detection and hepatic imaging revealed significantly lower BChE levels in injured mice versus healthy controls, validated by H&E staining. This offers a promising strategy for drug-induced liver injury screening.

