merocyanine-dye and Disease-Models--Animal

Topics: Acute Disease; Animals; Bone Marrow; Bone Marrow Transplantation; Cyclophosphamide; Disease Models, Animal; Drug Evaluation, Preclinical; Humans; Leukemia; Lymphoma; Mechlorethamine; Neoplastic Stem Cells; Photosensitivity Disorders; Podophyllotoxin; Pyrimidinones; Rats; Transplantation, Autologous

Depression is associated with decreased expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) which assembled in Golgi apparatus. The changes might be closely related to variation in Golgi apparatus polarity. Thus, developing a nondestructive method to detect polarity in living cells and in vivo can facilitate accurate diagnosis and prognosis of depression. Herein, we created a new near-infrared Golgi-targetable fluorescent probe (Golgi-P) in which the merocyanine and benzoyl difluoroboronate moieties sense polarity changes. Golgi-P exhibited a decrease in fluorescence intensity and red-shift of maximum emission wavelength as the increase in polarity. Using Golgi-P, we discovered distinctly higher polarity in brains of mice with depression phenotype for the first time. Furthermore, our results disclosed that the elevation of polarity could due to the reduced synthesis of BDNF. Altogether, this study offers a new strategy for the accurate diagnosis of depression.

Topics: Animals; Benzopyrans; Brain; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; Depression; Disease Models, Animal; Fluorescent Dyes; Golgi Apparatus; Indoles; Mice; Microscopy, Confocal; PC12 Cells; Rats; RNA Interference; RNA, Small Interfering

The photosensitizing dye merocyanine 540 (MC 540) was evaluated as a means for purging malarially infected red cells from murine blood using the rodent malarial pathogens, Plasmodium yoelii and Plasmodium berghei, as models of human malaria. Malarially infected red cells bound more MC 540 and were more sensitive to MC 540-sensitized photoirradiation than were noninfected erythroid cells. Extracorporeal exposure of infected red cells to the dye and white light prevented the transmission of the disease in a transfusion model. P. berghei-infected red cells were more resistant to the antimalarial activity of MC 540 than were P. yoelii-infected cells, presumably because P. berghei preferentially infects reticulocytes whereas P. yoelii infects mature red cells. The possibility of using photoirradiation sensitized by MC 540 or related dyes to purge malarially infected donor blood is discussed.

Topics: Animals; Blood Transfusion; Disease Models, Animal; Erythrocytes; Female; Flow Cytometry; Malaria; Mice; Mice, Inbred BALB C; Mice, Inbred C3H; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Photochemotherapy; Plasmodium; Plasmodium berghei; Plasmodium yoelii; Pyrimidinones; Radiation-Sensitizing Agents