Quantitative Analysis of Glucose Metabolic Cleavage in Glucose Transporters Overexpressed Cancer Cells by Target-Specific Fluorescent Gold Nanoclusters

• Published in: Analytical chemistry (Washington) 2018-03, Vol.90 (6), p.3974-3980
• Main Authors: Cheng, Tsai-Mu, Chu, Hsueh-Liang, Lee, Yi-Cheng, Wang, Di-Yan, Chang, Che-Chang, Chung, Kuan-Lan, Yen, Hung-Chi, Hsiao, Chu-Wen, Pan, Xi-Yu, Kuo, Tsung-Rong, Chen, Chia-Chun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: ABC transporters; Biocompatibility; Biomedical materials; Biosensing Techniques - methods; Cancer; Cell Line, Tumor; Chemistry; Cleavage; Cluster analysis; Enzymes; Fluorescent Dyes - chemistry; Fluorescent indicators; Fourier transforms; Glucose; Glucose - chemistry; Glucose - metabolism; Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative - analysis; Glucose Transport Proteins, Facilitative - metabolism; Glycolysis; Gold; Gold - chemistry; Humans; Metabolism; Metal Nanoparticles - chemistry; Microscopy, Confocal - methods; Microscopy, Fluorescence - methods; Mutation; Nanoclusters; Neoplasms - enzymology; Neoplasms - metabolism; Quantitative analysis; Reaction kinetics; Reaction time
• ISSN: 0003-2700; 1520-6882
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.7b04961

The glucose metabolism rate in cancer cells is a crucial piece of information for the cancer aggressiveness. A feasible method to monitor processes of oncogenic mutations has been demonstrated in this work. The fluorescent gold nanoclusters conjugated with glucose (glucose-AuNCs) were successfully synthesized as a cancer-targeting probe for glucose transporters (Gluts) overexpressed by U-87 MG cancer cells, which can be observed under confocal microscopy. The structural and optical characterizations of fluorescent glucose-AuNCs were confirmed by transmission electron microscope (TEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The MTT assay exhibited the high biocompatibility of water-soluble glucose-AuNCs for further biomedical applications. The glucose metabolic cleavage of glucose-AuNCs by glycolytic enzymes from U-87 MG cancer cell was measured by fluorescence change of glucose-AuNCs. The fluorescence change based on the integrated area under fluorescence spectra (A t ) of glucose-AuNCs was plotted as a function of different reaction time (t) with glycolytic enzymes. The fitted curve of A t versus t showed the first-order kinetics to explain the mechanism of glucose metabolic cleavage rate of glucose-AuNCs by glycolytic enzymes. The rate constant k could be utilized to determine the glucose metabolism rate of glucose-AuNCs for the quantitative analysis of cancer aggressiveness. Our work provides a practical application of target-specific glucose-AuNCs as a fluorescence probe to analyze the glucose metabolism in Gluts overexpressed cancer cells.