A novel fluorescent dye selectively images and kills cancer stem cells by targeting mitochondria: Evidence from a cell line-based zebrafish xenograft model
机构：[1]Department of Clinical Oncology, The Fifth Affiliated Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning,Guangxi 530000[2]Graduate School, Beijing TongRen Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100069首都医科大学附属北京同仁医院首都医科大学附属同仁医院[3]Department of Clinical Oncology, Wuming Hospital of Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530199[4]School of Basic Medical Sciences[5]Life Science Institute, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, Guangxi 530000[6]Laboratory of Clinical Medicine, The Affiliated Hospital of Youjiang Medical University for Nationalities, Baise,Guangxi 533000[7]School of Pharmacy, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070[8]Institute of Biomedical Research,Yunnan University, Kunming, Yunnan 650500, P.R. China
Numerous agents such as near-infrared dyes that are characterized by specialized cancer imaging and cytotoxicity effects have key roles in cancer diagnosis and therapy via molecularly targeting special biological tissues, organelles and processes. In the present study, a novel fluorescent compound was demonstrated to inhibit cancer cell proliferation in a zebrafish model with slight in vivo toxicity. Further studies demonstrated selective staining of cancer cells and even putative cancer stem cells via accumulation of the dye in the mitochondria of cancer cells, compared with normal cells. Moreover, this compound was also used to image cancer cells in vivo using a zebrafish model. The compound displayed no apparent toxicity to the host animal. Overall, the data indicated that this compound was worthy of further evaluation due to its low toxicity and selective cancer cell imaging and killing effects. It could be a useful tool in cancer research.
基金：
The present study was supported by the Project of theDepartment of Science and Technology of GuangxiZhuang Autonomous Region, China (grant no. GuikeAB19110052), Yunnan Fundamental Research Project(grant no. 202201AT070198) and the National Natural ScienceFoundation of China (grant no. 82000167).
