Unimolecular near-infrared chemiluminescent reporter for cascaded multiplex imaging of ischemia-reperfusion injury in the liver-kidney axis

Bankang Ruan, Weiliang Deng, Jingjing Che, Shujuan Yi, Jie Liu, Weiping Xu, Yuyan Jiang, Ya Zhou, Pan Xie, Huhai Zhang, Hongwen Zhao and Jiaguo Huang ()
Additional contact information
Bankang Ruan: Sun Yat-sen University
Weiliang Deng: Sun Yat-sen University
Jingjing Che: Sun Yat-sen University
Shujuan Yi: Sun Yat-sen University
Jie Liu: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Weiping Xu: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yuyan Jiang: Stanford University School of Medicine
Ya Zhou: Sun Yat-sen University
Pan Xie: Army Medical University
Huhai Zhang: Army Medical University
Hongwen Zhao: Army Medical University
Jiaguo Huang: Sun Yat-sen University

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: Abstract Acute kidney injury (AKI) frequently arises as a complication of hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury (HIRI), yet simultaneous optical imaging of both remains challenging due to the lack of unimolecular dual-responsive probes. Herein, we report a library of hemicyanine-based chemiluminophores (HCLs) with tunable emission to second near-infrared window (725 − 1025 nm) achieved by integrating bicyclic dioxetane onto hemicyanine skeletons to develop multiple-responsive chemiluminescent probes. HCL1 and HCL5 respectively emitting at 725 nm and 1025 nm are selected to construct a cascaded activatable reporter CAR for crosstalk-free duplex chemiluminescence imaging of interlinked biomarkers. Following systemic injection to male mice, CAR preferentially accumulates in the liver and reports HIRI-associated superoxide anion (O2•−), which initiates self-fragmentation and liberates the secondary reporter KIR into kidneys to report AKI-associated N-acetyl-β-D-glucosaminidase (NAG). Such mechanism allows CAR to serve as a reservoir for gradual release of AKI reporters, providing a significantly prolonged imaging window compared to co-administering separate probes. CAR further permits remote detection of HIRI-induced AKI via urinalysis. This study not only offers a powerful tool for simultaneous detection of HIRI and HIRI-induced AKI, but also highlights a unimolecular probe design for ultrasensitive detection of deeply-seated intercorrelated diseases.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62348-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-62348-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62348-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().