A highly sensitive strategy to detect dying cancer cells

What is it about?

Caspase-3 is an enzyme in cells that help regulate cell health. When activated, it triggers events that end up eradicating the cell. As a result, many cancer drugs are designed to activate caspase-3 in tumor cells to selectively kill these cells and preserve normal cells. Here, we developed an ultrasensitive method to detect caspase-3 induced cell death Our method can be used to visualize the functional status of other diagnostic enzymes. To prevent interference from other cellular events, we used a type of light called near-infrared fluorescence, which is produced by our sensor but not by cells.

Featured Image

Photo by Dušan veverkolog on Unsplash

Photo by Dušan veverkolog on Unsplash

Why is it important?

We hope to use our approach to monitor the response of patients to cancer drugs.