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Accurate identification of cancer from inflammation and normal tissue in a rapid, sensitive, and quantitative fashion is important for cancer diagnosis and resection during surgery. Here we report the use of cyclooxygenase-2 as a marker for identification of cancer from inflammation and the design of a novel smart COX-2-specific fluorogenic probe (NANQ-IMC6). The probe's fluorescence is "turned on" in both inflammations and cancers where COX-2 is overexpressed. Intriguingly, the fluorescent emission is quite different at these two sites with different expression level of COX-2. Hence, NANQ-IMC6 can not only distinguish normal cells/tissues from cancer cells/tissues but also distinguish the latter from sites of inflammation lesions by the different fluorescence recognition of NANQ-IMC6 for COX-2 enzymes. Following spraying with the NANQ-IMC6 solution, cancerous tissue, inflamed tissues, and normal tissues can be accurately discriminated in vivo by the unaided eye using a hand-held ultraviolet lamp emitting at 365 nm. So the probe may have potential application varying from cancer inflammation diagnosis to guiding tumor resection during surgery.
Zhang et al. (Tue,) studied this question.