Senescence-associated diseases have severely diminished the quality of life and health of patients. However, a sensitive assay of these diseases remains limited due to a lack of straightforward methods. Considering that senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-Gal) is overexpressed in senescent cells, the detection of SA-β-Gal in senescent cells and tissues might be a feasible strategy for the early diagnosis of SA diseases. In this study, a β-galactosidase-activatable nanoprobe BOD-L-βGal-NPs was developed for the imaging of senescent cells and vasculature in atherosclerotic mice via real-time monitoring of β-Gal. BOD-L-βGal-NPs was fabricated by encapsulating a newly designed NIR ratiometric probe BOD-L-βGal within a poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid (PLGA) core. Nanoprobe BOD-L-βGal-NPs showed good accumulation in arteries, thus successfully visualizing senescent cells and vasculature in atherosclerotic mice by tail vein injection. Our findings indicated that nanoprobe BOD-L-βGal-NPs holds great potential for the early diagnosis and therapy of atherosclerosis and other aging-associated diseases.
衰老相关疾病严重降低了患者的生活质量和健康
水平。然而,由于缺乏直接的方法,对这些疾病的灵敏检测仍然有限。考虑到衰老相关的
β-半乳糖苷酶(
SA-β-Gal)在衰老细胞中过表达,检测衰老细胞和组织中的
SA-β-Gal可能是早期诊断衰老相关疾病的可行策略。本研究开发了一种可激活
β-半乳糖苷酶的纳米探针BOD-L-βGal-NPs,用于通过实时监测β-Gal对动脉粥样硬化小鼠的衰老细胞和血管进行成像。BOD-L-βGal-NPs是通过将新设计的近红外比率探针BOD-L-βGal封装在聚
乳酸-共聚
乙醇酸(PLGA)内核中制成的。纳米探针 BOD-L-βGal-NPs 在动脉中显示出良好的蓄积性,因此通过尾静脉注射成功地观察到了动脉粥样硬化小鼠的衰老细胞和血管。我们的研究结果表明,纳米探针BOD-L-βGal-NPs在动脉粥样硬化和其他衰老相关疾病的早期诊断和治疗方面具有巨大潜力。