Directly observing intracellular nanoparticle formation with nanocomputed tomography.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 33097531.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1126/sciadv.aba3190 and PMC identifier 7608822.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Directly observing intracellular nanostructure formation remains challenging. In this work, using a rationally designed small-molecule 4-nitrobenzyl carbamate-Cys(SEt)-Asp-Asp-Phe(iodine)-2-cyano-benzothiazole (NBC-Iod-CBT), we directly observed intracellular nanoparticle formation with nanocomputed tomography (nano-CT). In vitro, upon glutathione reduction and nitroreductase (NTR) cleavage, NBC-Iod-CBT undergoes a CBT-Cys click condensation reaction to self-assemble nanoparticles Iod-CBT-NPs with an average linear absorption coefficient (LAC) value of 0.182 ± 0.078 μm<sup>-1</sup> to x-ray. Nano-CT imaging of the NBC-Iod-CBT-treated, NTR-overexpressing HeLa cells showed the existence of Iod-CBT-NPs in their cytoplasm with an average LAC value of 0.172 ± 0.032 μm<sup>-1</sup> We anticipate that our strategy could help people to deeply understand the formation mechanism of intracellular nanostructures in the near future.