Imaging the intracellular distribution of tyrosine kinase inhibitors in living cells with quantitative hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering.

ABSTRACT: ABL1 tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKI) are front-line therapy for chronic myelogenous leukaemia and are among the best-known examples of targeted cancer therapeutics. However, the dynamic uptake into cells of TKIs of low molecular weight and their intracellular behaviour is unknown because of the difficulty of observing non-fluorescent small molecules at subcellular resolution. Here we report the direct label-free visualization and quantification of two TKI drugs (imatinib and nilotinib) inside living cells using hyperspectral stimulated Raman scattering imaging. Concentrations of both drugs were enriched over 1,000-fold in lysosomes as a result of their lysosomotropic properties. In addition, low solubility appeared to contribute significantly to the surprisingly large accumulation of nilo

SUBMITTER: Fu D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4205760 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature