Targeted biosensors for intracellular lipid droplet content detection

Lipid droplets participate in the metabolic process of many living cells, and their abnormalities are highly correlated with many diseases such as fatty liver, diabetes, and cancer. Nevertheless, the current methods are inadequate for elucidating the relationship between diverse diseases and lipid droplets. In particular, the visualization of tumors with abnormal distribution of lipid droplets remains a significant challenge. Therefore, a water-soluble biosensor with lipid droplet specificity is synthesized by copolymerization of coumarin derivatives with low toxicity and high hydrophilic hydroxyl terminal polyethylene glycol. The survival rate of HeLa cells cultured with lipid drop biosensor for 24 h was more than 90% on average, and the toxicity was less. The co-localization imaging experiments with lipid droplets showed that the biosensor had a good ability to target lipid droplets in HeLa cells. The experimental results of the response of different cell lines to the biosensor showed that the tumor cells had a good response and uptake ability. These results indicate that the prepared biosensor has a good distinguishing function between normal cells and tumor cells, and provides an experimental basis for the early diagnosis of clinical tumors.