On May 7th,the journal Bioconjugate Chemistry published an article entitled"Cell Labeling with Responsive MRI Contrast Agents is Enabled through Solid-Phase Synthesis"and highlighted it on the front cover in its print issue from July 16th (Fig 1). This work was carried out by Dr. Goran Angelovski and his collaborators from the MPI for Biological Cybernetics in Tuebingen (Germany) and University of Belgrade (Serbia).
In this article, a useful strategy to prepare a multifunctional bioresponsiveMRI probe that can be successfully incorporated into the cell membrane and internalized wasreported. It consisted of using the solid-phase synthesis methodology to obtain a trimeric MRI probe responsive to calcium ions, which bears a hydrophobic tetradecanoyl group to facilitate interaction with primary rat astrocytes. The developed probe maintained high activity, exhibiting high calcium-triggered longitudinal and transverse relaxivity changes. Concurrently, it showed the ability to label the cell membranes and internalize into the astroglial cells while not causing cytotoxicity or affecting the electrophysiology of the cells.
Figure 1: A cover artwork representing successful internalization of a bioresponsive MRI probe into the astrocytes, to serve as a lantern to illuminate cellular activity.
This article published in Bioconjugate Chemistry was funded by the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project,the National Key R&D Program of China and the National Natural Science Foundation of China.
Article: Connah,L.,Bataveljić,D.,Bondžić,A. M.,Fernandez De Henestrosa,L. C.,Korenić,A., Bondžić,B. P.,Andjus,P.,Angelovski,G. Cell Labeling with Responsive MRI Contrast Agents is Enabled through Solid-Phase Synthesis. Bioconjugate Chem. 2025, 36, 7, 1384–1393
DOI: 10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00005
Link: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.bioconjchem.5c00005
Author contact:
ANGELOVSKI Goran
International Center for Primate Brain Research / CEBSIT (CAS),Shanghai,China
Email: goran.angelovski@icpbr.ac.cn