May 17, 2018
National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
Keio University
[Key Points]
Synthesized a wide variety of unprecedented fluorescent dye-labeled luciferins, achieving a diverse range of emission colors through selective luminescent reactions
Achieved green luminescence with the world's highest level of brightness using a synthetic intermediate of a new luciferin
Expected to be used for the development of highly sensitive diagnostic agents, early diagnosis of cancer, various bioassays, and bioimaging
[Summary]
Principal Investigator Sung-Bae Kim of the Environmental Microbiology Research Group, Research Institute for Environmental Management (Director: Mikiya Tanaka) at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST; President: Ryoji Chubachi), in collaboration with Professor Emeritus Koji Suzuki, Professor Daniel Citterio, and Ryo Nishihara (completed the Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Science and Technology in September 2017) of the Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University (President: Akira Haseyama), have jointly developed a series of fluorescent dye-labeled luciferins and achieved multicolor bioluminescence. They systematically developed a series of fluorescent dye-labeled luciferins by introducing various fluorescent dyes to natural bioluminescent substrates (coelenterazine, nCZT). By reacting these with AIST's proprietary artificial bioluminescent enzyme group (ALuc®; an AIST trademark) and Renilla luciferase (RLuc), they obtained a wide variety of emission colors from blue to red. This color change is due to a phenomenon where energy from the luciferin is transferred to the fluorescent dye (chemiluminescence/bioluminescence resonance energy transfer, or CRET/BRET). Some of the developed luciferins luminesce selectively with specific enzymes, making it possible to cause only a particular enzyme to emit light even in systems where complex chemical substances coexist. They also discovered that an azide-functionalized luciferin, a synthetic intermediate for introducing fluorescent dyes, enzyme-selectively emits extremely high-brightness green luminescence. These results are expected to be widely applicable to the development of highly sensitive diagnostic reagents, early diagnosis of cancer, various bioassays, and bioimaging.
This research was published online in the American Chemical Society journal Bioconjugate Chemistry on May 16, 2018 (U.S. Eastern Daylight Time).
For the full press release, please see below.