Evaluating Cellular Drug Uptake with Fluorescent Sensor Proteins

Fluorescent Proteins in Drug Development

Cellular Uptake of Drug Nanocrystals

Systemic toxicity and poor solubility of existing chemotherapeutic drugs piqued an interest in the use of nanocrystals for chemotherapy. To increase cytotoxicity, surface coating of nanocrystals is of interest to enhance tumor targeting and reduce treatment toxicity. As such, we tested in this project various coated paclitaxel nanocrystals on cancer cells for determining the efficacy of surface...

Heterogeneous cellular drug uptake in chemotherapy

Cells are the building blocks of life. As an individual, cells behavior variedly in the population. Cellular drug uptake is heterogeneous and cells respond differently to treatment for cancer and other diseases. It’s significant to recognize and detect heterogeneous drug uptake and interpret its effects on chemotherapy or other diseases treatment. In this brief review, we discuss the current pr...

Cellular uptake of a fluorescent vanadyl sulfonylcalix[4]arene.

Vanadyl bearing calix[4]arene ligands have undergone evaluation against several cell lines, and show varying degrees of toxicity. For vanadyl complexed to a sulfonylcalix[4]arene, monitoring of the strong blue fluorescence revealed slow uptake kinetics. The complex is exclusively found in the cytoplasm of the cells and uptake is not due to active endocytotic mechanisms.

A palette of fluorescent proteins optimized for diverse cellular environments

To perform quantitative live cell imaging, investigators require fluorescent reporters that accurately report protein localization and levels, while minimally perturbing the cell. Yet, within the biochemically distinct environments of cellular organelles, popular fluorescent proteins (FPs), including EGFP, can be unreliable for quantitative imaging, resulting in the underestimation of protein l...