A Fluorogenic Inhibitor of the Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter.

Zhouyang Huang Samantha N MacMillan Justin J Wilson

Published in: Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) (2023)

Inhibitors of the mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU) are valuable tools for studying the role of mitochondrial Ca 2+ in various pathophysiological conditions. In this study, a new fluorogenic MCU inhibitor, RuOCou, is presented. This compound is an analogue of the known MCU inhibitor Ru265 that contains fluorescent axial coumarin carboxylate ligands. Upon aquation of RuOCou and release of the axial coumarin ligands, a simultaneous increase in its MCU-inhibitory activity and fluorescence intensity is observed. The fluorescence response of this compound enabled its aquation to be monitored in both HeLa cell lysates and live HeLa cells. This fluorogenic prodrug represents a potential theranostic MCU inhibitor that can be leveraged for the treatment of human diseases related to MCU activity.

Keyphrases

oxidative stress
cell cycle arrest
induced apoptosis
endothelial cells
single molecule
fluorescent probe
cell death
living cells
single cell
photodynamic therapy
cell proliferation
drug delivery
cancer therapy
climate change