Directing chemiluminescent dioxetanes to mitochondria: A cationic luminophore enables in vitro and in vivo detection of cancer cells upon enzymatic activation

A mitochondrion targeted and leucine aminopeptidase (LAP) activatable 1,2-dioxatane based chemiluminescent probe (MCL) for detection of LAP activity in living cancer cells and tumor bearing mice was reported. MCL displayed a selective and sensitive turn-on response in aqueous solutions upon reacting with the LAP enzyme. In cell culture studies, a selective luminescence intensity increase was observed in cancer cell lines, suggesting that MCL can differentiate between cancer and normal cells and allows detection of varying endogenous LAP concentrations. Using fluorescence imaging with a commercial Mitotracker dye, MCL was also shown to localize mitochondria in cancer cell lines. Furthermore, MCL was used to image tumors in mice models. MCL marks not only the first ever example of a mitochondria targeted chemiluminescent probe, but also the first ever example of an organelle targeted 1,2-dioxetane derivative.