Our paper titled "Dynamic Photoacoustic Imaging of Mobile Cu(II) in Vivo via Catalytic Radical Cation Formation" has been accepted for publication in Angewandte Chemie! Congratulations to Zhiyong and Qian!
Copper, one of the most essential transition metals in living organisms, plays a crucial role in various physiological and pathological processes. Notably, Professor T. V. O’Halloran from Northwestern University published a pivotal paper in Science in 1999, titled “Undetectable Intracellular Free Copper: The Requirement of a Copper Chaperone for Superoxide Dismutase” (Science 1999, 284 (5415), 805-808), highlighting that the concentration of 'free' (or unbound) copper ions in cells is significantly lower than one atom per cell. This led to the prevailing belief that copper ions exert their physiological and pathological functions in a bound state.
Recent studies, however, have suggested the existence of a 'labile' copper pool in cells under pathological conditions, prompting scientists to reevaluate the presence of 'free' copper ions. Although various Cu(I)/Cu(II) probes based on coordination chemistry have been developed for dynamic imaging of 'labile' Cu(I)/Cu(II) within cells, the performance of these probes is often influenced by their coordination ability, complicating the selective differentiation between free and bound copper ions. Achieving dynamic detection of free Cu(I)/Cu(II) while maintaining a stable balance of bound/free Cu(I)/Cu(II) in vivo remains a significant challenge.
In this research, we collaborated with Professor Jing Zhao from Nanjing University and Professor Fang Liu from the University of California, Los Angeles, to develop a novel photoacoustic probe design strategy based on the Cu(II)-catalyzed formation mechanism of aromatic amine radical cations, successfully enabling in vivo dynamic imaging of free Cu(II).
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