Poster Presentation The 43rd Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function 2018

Small molecule fluorogens for measuring proteostasis capacity in cells (#252)

Shouxiang Zhang 1 , Tze Cin Owyong , Yuning Hong 1
  1. La Trobe Univeristy, Reservoir, VIC, Australia

Proteostasis is an important biological event that regulates protein synthesis, folding and degradation1. We previously reported that an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogen, TPE-MI2, which can be used as a great tool to quantify proteostasis imbalance by luminescence upon conjugation with exposed cysteine thiols. Upon structural optimization, we have created a series of TPE-MI analogues with better spectral properties while remaining minimal cytotoxicity, compared to TPE-MI. In this poster, I will present the applications of these probes for reporting on proteostatic stress in cells.

  1. Burslem, G. M.; Crews, C. M., Small-Molecule Modulation of Protein Homeostasis. Chemical reviews 2017, 117 (17), 11269-11301.
  2. Chen, M. Z.; Moily, N. S.; Bridgford, J. L.; Wood, R. J.; Radwan, M.; Smith, T. A.; Song, Z.; Tang, B. Z.; Tilley, L.; Xu, X.; Reid, G. E.; Pouladi, M. A.; Hong, Y.; Hatters, D. M., A thiol probe for measuring unfolded protein load and proteostasis in cells. Nature communications 2017, 8 (1), 474.