Abstract
Fibroblast activation protein (FAP) plays an important role in the progress of lung cancer, but an effective tool has not been reported for revealing the relationship between them. In this work, an adenosine-5-triphosphate (ATP)-powered signal-amplified probe, named ASAP, was prepared using a FAP-sensitive polymer and ATP-binding fluorophore. This probe was employed to determine FAP based upon signal amplification. In the living cells, the activated polymer is destroyed by FAP and the internal fluorophor is released, causing the first stage of signal amplification. Furthermore, the free fluorophor can bind with endogenous ATP to enhance the fluorescence intensity, realizing the second stage of amplification. By virtue of the double amplification, FAP was determined from 0 to 50 ng/mL with a detection limit of 0.26 ng/mL. Moreover, cell imaging showed that the endogenous FAP was successfully imaged in lung carcinoma cells with ASAP, demonstrating the relationship between FAP and lung cancer.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).