A Functional Chemiluminescent Probe for in Vivo Imaging of Natural Killer Cell Activity Against Tumours.

ABSTRACT: Natural killer (NK) cells are immune cells that can kill certain types of cancer cells. Adoptive transfer of NK cells represents a promising immunotherapy for malignant tumours; however, there is a lack of methods to validate anti-tumour activity of NK cells in vivo. Herein, we report a new chemiluminescent probe to image in situ the granzyme B-mediated killing activity of NK cells against cancer cells. We have optimised a granzyme B-specific construct using an activatable phenoxydioxetane reporter so that enzymatic cleavage of the probe results in bright chemiluminescence. The probe shows high selectivity for active granzyme B over other proteases and higher signal-to-noise ratios than commercial fluorophores. Finally, we demonstrate that the probe can detect NK cell activity in mouse mod

SUBMITTER: Scott JI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10946790 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature