南京林业大学刘志鹏团队开发了血脑屏障渗透高分辨率光声探测用于老鼠大脑的一氧化氮成像。相关研究成果于2023年3月31日发表在《美国化学会杂志》。

大脑一氧化氮（NO）稳态的改变与多种神经退行性疾病有关。因此，大脑中NO的高分辨率成像对于理解病理生理过程至关重要。然而，目前可用的NO探针不适合用于此目的，因为它们穿过血脑屏障（BBB）或以空间分辨率在深层组织中成像的能力较差。

该文中，研究人员开发了一种具有穿越血脑屏障能力的光声（PA）探针来克服这一障碍。该探针对NO表现出高度选择性的比率反应，使得该探针能够在活体小鼠的整个大脑中以微米分辨率对NO进行成像。使用三维PA成像，研究人员证明该探针可用于可视化帕金森病（PD）小鼠大脑不同深度横截面（0-8 mm）中NO的详细分布。研究人员还利用探针作为显像剂，研究了天然多酚在PD小鼠脑中的治疗特性，并提出了探针用于筛选治疗剂的潜力。

该项研究为小鼠大脑中NO的高分辨率成像提供了一种很有前途的成像剂。研究认为，这些发现可能为理解NO在大脑中的生物学功能以及开发用于诊断和治疗脑部疾病的新成像剂开辟新的可能性。

附：英文原文

Title: Blood–Brain Barrier Permeable Photoacoustic Probe for High-Resolution Imaging of Nitric Oxide in the Living Mouse Brain

Author: Zhiyong Jiang, Zhaolun Liang, Yijing Cui, Changli Zhang, Jing Wang, Hong Wang, Tianzhu Wang, Yuncong Chen, Weijiang He, Zhipeng Liu, Zijian Guo

Issue&Volume: March 31, 2023

Abstract: Alternations in the brain nitric oxide (NO) homeostasis are associated with a variety of neurodegeneration diseases; therefore, high-resolution imaging of NO in the brain is essential for understanding pathophysiological processes. However, currently available NO probes are unsuitable for this purpose due to their poor ability to cross the blood–brain barrier (BBB) or to image in deep tissues with spatial resolution. Herein, we developed a photoacoustic (PA) probe with BBB crossing ability to overcome this obstacle. The probe shows a highly selective ratiometric response toward NO, which enables the probe to image NO with micron resolution in the whole brain of living mice. Using three-dimensional PA imaging, we demonstrated that the probe could be used to visualize the detailed NO distribution in varying depth cross-sections (0–8 mm) of the living Parkinson’s disease (PD) mouse brain. We also investigated the therapeutic properties of natural polyphenols in the PD mouse brain using the probe as an imaging agent and suggested the potential of the probe for screening therapeutic agents. This study provides a promising imaging agent for imaging of NO in the mouse brain with high resolution. We anticipate that these findings may open up new possibilities for understanding the biological functions of NO in the brain and the development of new imaging agents for the diagnosis and treatment of brain diseases.

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.2c13315

Source: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.2c13315