DEVELOPMENT OF FUNCTIONAL FLUORESCENT PROBES FOR BIOIMAGING

人类对来自外部环境的大量和各种信息具有高度的接受能力，其中90%以上的信息被认为是视觉的。人们通常说，眼睛比耳朵更有效，这可能是“眼见为实”这句谚语的基础。能够“看到身体内部”或“看到细胞内部”对于疾病的诊断和治疗以及对生命基本过程的研究至关重要。此外，希望通过使用非侵入性技术来实现对身体和细胞的观察，而无需切割身体或分离细胞成分。因此，我们认为可视化身体和细胞的生理或病理生理变化的技术在生物医学科学中变得越来越重要。在本研究项目中，我们开发了用于生物活性化合物生物成像的化学探针；一氧化氮、锌离子、单线态氧、高活性氧、镁离子、阴离子、半胱天冬酶、蛋白酪氨酸磷酸酶和磷酸二酯酶，基于光诱导电子转移（PET）和荧光共振能量转移（FRET）的机制。这些探针被应用于活细胞和组织培养，以评估生物活性化合物的生物功能。结果表明，这些探针具有实际应用价值，可以揭示生物活性化合物在各种生物系统中的众多作用。

Human beings are highly receptive to an enormous amount and variety of information from the external environment, and more than 90 % of it is thought to be visual. It is generally said that an appeal to the eye is more effective than that to the ear, which may be the basis of the proverb "Seeing is believing". To be able to "see into the body" or "see into cells" is essential in the diagnosis and treatment of disease, as well as for research into the basic processes of life. Moreover, it is desirable that seeing into the body and cells is accomplished by using noninvasive techniques, without cutting into the body or isolating of cellular constituents. Therefore, we believe that techniques to visualize physiological or pathophysiological changes in the body and cells become increasingly important in biomedical sciences. In this research project, we have developed the chemical probes for bioimaging of biological active compounds; nitric oxide, zinc ion, singlet oxygen, highly reactive oxygen species, magnesium ion, anion, caspase, protein tyrosine phosphatase and phosphodiesterase, based on the mechanisms of photoinduced electron transfer (PET) and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). These probes were applied to living cells and tissue cultures in order to evaluate bio-functions of the biological active compounds. As the results, we obtained the results that these probes are in practical use and can reveal numerous roles of the biological active compounds in various biological systems.