posted on 2023-01-12, 13:04authored byQian Liu, Jie Yuan, Renfeng Jiang, Longwei He, Xuefeng Yang, Lin Yuan, Dan Cheng
γ-Glutamyltransferase
(GGT) has been recognized as an important
clinical biomarker that is closely related to many diseases. Visualizing
the GGT fluctuation facilitates early disease-related diagnosis and
therapy. Herein, an activated probe (NIR-GGT) for the
imaging of GGT activity was prepared. The probe consists of a stable
NIR fluorophore with the tunable amino group decorated with the γ-glutamate
group as a GGT-sensing unit linked by a self-elimination group. NIR-GGT can sensitively recognize GGT and cause a strong turn-on
fluorescent and photoacoustic signal. The up-regulation of the GGT
expression in acetaminophen-induced acute liver injury was imaged
using NIR-GGT. The probe can track changes in the GGT
level in the early stages of drug-induced acute liver injury (DIALI)
and its remedy process by fluorescent and photoacoustic dual-modality
imaging with a high temporal–spatial resolution. NIR-GGT can also be used to differentiate between tumor and para-carcinowa tissues in vivo. The probe may be a potential tool for
the diagnosis of early-stage DIALI and accurate tumor resection in
the clinical field.