Dual-functional AIE fluorescent probes for imaging β-amyloid plaques and lipid droplets

Yuxuan Wang; Yutai Qiu; Anyang Sun; Yinghong Xiong; Huiya Tan; Yuqi Shi; Pan Yu; Gaurab Roy; Lei Zhang; Jinwu Yan

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2020.07.073

Dual-functional AIE fluorescent probes for imaging β-amyloid plaques and lipid droplets

Anal Chim Acta. 2020 Oct 9:1133:109-118. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2020.07.073. Epub 2020 Aug 12.

Authors

Yuxuan Wang¹, Yutai Qiu¹, Anyang Sun², Yinghong Xiong¹, Huiya Tan¹, Yuqi Shi³, Pan Yu¹, Gaurab Roy¹, Lei Zhang⁴, Jinwu Yan⁵

Affiliations

¹ MOE International Joint Research Laboratory on Synthetic Biology and Medicines, School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China.
² Department of Neurology, Shanghai Zhoupu Hospital, and Laboratory of Neurogenerative Diseases & Molecular Imaging, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, 201318, China. Electronic address: sunay@sumhs.edu.cn.
³ Department of Neurology, Shanghai Zhoupu Hospital, and Laboratory of Neurogenerative Diseases & Molecular Imaging, Shanghai University of Medicine & Health Sciences, Shanghai, 201318, China; School of Medical Instrument and Food Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, 200093, China.
⁴ MOE International Joint Research Laboratory on Synthetic Biology and Medicines, School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China. Electronic address: lzhangce@scut.edu.cn.
⁵ MOE International Joint Research Laboratory on Synthetic Biology and Medicines, School of Biology and Biological Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China. Electronic address: yjw@scut.edu.cn.

PMID: 32993862
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2020.07.073

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease. Better imaging and early diagnosis of biomarkers of AD is extremely important for therapeutic interventions. The amyloid cascade hypothesis and its revised version identify insoluble β-amyloid deposition as a good diagnostic biomarker for AD. Moreover, lipid droplets may also act as an auxiliary biomarker related to AD pathology based on recent studies. Herein, two quinoline-based AIE probes were designed and synthesized for the imaging of Aβ plaques and lipid droplets. The probes exhibited remarkable turn-on fluorescence enhancements with the Aβ aggregates. The lipid droplets-targeting probe FB exhibited high selectivity and binding affinity towards the Aβ aggregates with a detection limit as low as 26.9 nM. Furthermore, FB was capable of readily imaging Aβ plaques and lipid droplets at the cellular level and in brain sections of transgenic AD mice. The probe FB can serve as a promising tool for developing early diagnosis and innovative therapeutics of AD.

Keywords: AIE; Alzheimer’s disease; Beta-amyloid; Dual-functional; Fluorescent probe; Lipid droplets.

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease* / diagnostic imaging
Amyloid beta-Peptides / metabolism
Animals
Brain / diagnostic imaging
Brain / metabolism
Fluorescent Dyes
Lipid Droplets / metabolism
Mice
Mice, Transgenic
Neurodegenerative Diseases*
Plaque, Amyloid / diagnostic imaging

Substances

Amyloid beta-Peptides
Fluorescent Dyes