Liu TW, Akens MK, Chen J, Wise-Milestone L, Wilson BC & Zheng G Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2011 Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Approximately 85% of patients with advanced cases will develop spinal metastases. The vertebral column is the most common site of breast cancerContinue Reading
Lovell JF, Jin H, Ng KK & Zheng G Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2010 Out in the open: Hydrophobically modified molecular beacons were inserted into lipid nanoparticles. Upon addition of the target DNA to a solution of the lipid nanoparticles, irreversible nanoparticle aggregation occurred (see picture). This aggregation phenomenon resultsContinue Reading
Lovell JF, Chen J, Huynh E, Jarvi MT, Wilson BC & Zheng G Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2010 Nucleic acid photodynamic molecular beacons (PMBs) are a class of activatable photosensitizers that increase singlet oxygen generation upon binding a specific target sequence. Normally, PMBs are functionalized with multiple solution-phase labeling and purification steps.Continue Reading
Chen J, Liu TWB, Wilson BC & Zheng G Bioconjugate Chemistry, 2009 We report the proof-of-principle concept for zipper molecular beacons (ZMB) comprising an asymmetrical polyarginine/polyglutamate electrostatic “zipper” hairpin-linked fluorophore−quencher pair. The objective is to balance maximal quenching efficiency and optimal two-step activation (protease cleavage/zipper dissociation), while enhancing target cellContinue Reading
Lovell JF, Chen J, Jarvi MT, Cao W, Allen AD, Liu Y, Tidwell TT, Wilson BC & Zheng G Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 2009 The development of activatable photodynamic therapy (PDT) has demonstrated a utility for effective photosensitizer quenchers. However, little is known quantitatively about Forster resonance energy transferContinue Reading
Lo P, Chen J, Stefflova K, Warren MS, Navab R, Bandarchi B, Mullins S, Tsao M, Cheng JD & Zheng G Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, 2009 Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) is a cell-surface serine protease highly expressed on cancer-associated fibroblasts of human epithelial carcinomas but not on normal fibroblasts, normalContinue Reading
Chen J, Lovell JF, Lo P, Stefflova K, Niedre M, Wilson BC & Zheng G Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, 2008 We report a new class of photodynamic molecular beacon (PMB) with tumor specific mRNA-triggered control of singlet oxygen (1O2) production. The beacon contains a single-stranded oligonucleotide linker that forms aContinue Reading
Chen J, Jarvi M, Lo P, Stefflova K, Wilson BC & Zheng G Photochemical and Photobiological Sciences, 2007 We recently introduced the concept of photodynamic molecular beacons (PMB) for selective control of photodynamic therapy (PDT). The PMB consists of a peptide linker that is sequence specific to a cancer-associated protease.Continue Reading
Zheng G, Chen J, Stefflova K, Jarvi M, Li H & Wilson BC Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2007 Molecular beacons are FRET-based target-activatable probes. They offer control of fluorescence emission in response to specific cancer targets, thus are useful tools for in vivo cancer imaging. Photodynamic therapyContinue Reading
Stefflova K, Chen J Li H & Zheng G Molecular Imaging, 2006 Imaging apoptotic cells or tissues after cancer therapy in situ would be a very useful tool for assessing proper treatment conditions and therapeutic outcome. By combining therapeutic and imaging functions, we have designed a multifunctional, membrane-permeable, and cancer-specificContinue Reading
