Real-Time In Vivo Detection of Cellular Senescence through the Controlled Release of the NIR Fluorescent Dye Nile Blue

[EN] In vivo detection of cellular senescence is accomplished by using mesoporous silica nanoparticles loaded with the NIR-FDA approved Nile blue (NB) dye and capped with a galactohexasaccharide (S3). NB emission at 672 nm is highly quenched inside S3, yet a remarkable emission enhancement is observed upon cap hydrolysis in the presence of beta-galactosidase and dye release. The efficacy of the probe to detect cellular senescence is tested in vitro in melanoma SK-Mel-103 and breast cancer 4T1 cells and in vivo in palbociclib-treated BALB/cByJ mice bearing breast cancer tumor.
R.M. thanks financial support from the Spanish Government (RTI2018-100910-B-C41 and RTI2018-101599-B-C22 (MCUI/AEI/FEDER, UE)) and the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO 2018/024). M.O. thanks the financial support from SAF2017-84689-R project and MINECO/AEI/FEDER, UE and the Generalitat Valenciana (PROMETEO/2019/065). B.L.-T. is grateful to the Spanish Ministry of Economy for her PhD grant. I.G. thanks her contract from IDM. J.F.-B. and M.A. thank the UPV for their postdoctoral fellowship.