Metal chelation-based fluorescent probes for protein or other biomolecule labeling in cells
- Field
- Research Tools and Methods
- Patent
- IP00483
Background and Market Opportunity
- The currently available and widely used metal based small molecule fluorescent probes are FlAsH or its analogues such as ReAsH, SplAsH etc.
- Though, these probes must be used with EDT to increase rate of labeling and to reduce the background.
- Further, they use arsenic and can only label tetracysteine fused proteins.
- Arsenic is toxic to human, and is also an environmental contaminant. Moreover, tetracysteine motif is not common tetracysteine motif is not as common as His-tag to be genetically fused to proteins in cell biology and biomedical research.
- Therefore, extensive research has been carried out to image His-tagged proteins, however these probes have poor permeability.
Technology Overview and Key Advantages
- The invention describes metal chelation-based fluorescent probes for imaging intracellular proteins or other biomolecules in live cells to monitor their biological events.
- The probes uses nickel(II) and nitrogen containing ligand(s) to label poly-histidine-tagged proteins/biomolecules or endogenous metal-binding proteins.
- They also are able to covalently bind to labeled proteins, enabling further protein identification.
Advantages
- High permeability to cell membrane.
- Doesn't require support of penetrating peptide, catalyst, or other chemicals to enter the cell.
- Lower cost.
- Higher binding affinity because of the introduction of a second binding site.
- Higher signal intensity because of closer proximity to the interested protein.
- Less toxic than the arsenic type probes like FlAsH and ReAsH.
- Simple synthetic route.
Potential Product and Applications
- Probes for visualization for protein expression and purification in biology and biomedical research.
- Probes for visualization and identification of metalloproteomes in a high-throughput manner.
Development Status and IP Strength
- Granted Patent in Australia, issued on 14 September, 2017.
- Undergoing examination in China, US, Hong Kong, Japan, and Canada.
- Prototype available.