Citation: Bijia Zhou, Fapu Wu, Bingbing Zheng, Tao Hu, Xinyu Qiu, Kairong Yang, Hu Xiong. A γ-glutamyl transferase and HClO dual-responsive bioluminescent probe for colorectal cancer diagnosis and stool analysis[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(8): 111835. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.111835 shu

A γ-glutamyl transferase and HClO dual-responsive bioluminescent probe for colorectal cancer diagnosis and stool analysis

Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Biosensing and Molecular Recognition, Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, College of Chemistry, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China

xionghu@nankai.edu.cn

Received Date: 30 June 2025
Revised Date: 11 September 2025
Accepted Date: 12 September 2025
Available Online: 13 September 2025

Figures(6)

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent malignancies worldwide, frequently presenting with metastatic progression to the liver. A hallmark of CRC is redox dysregulation, characterized by elevated levels of γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT) and hypochlorite (ClO⁻). However, bioluminescent probes capable of simultaneously detecting GGT and ClO⁻ for sensitive in vivo CRC diagnosis and ex vivo fecal analysis remain lacking. Herein, we report a novel dual-locked bioluminescent probe, GClO-luc, designed for the simultaneous detection of GGT and ClO⁻ in CRC and stool testing. GClO-luc remains silent until sequentially activated by GGT and ClO⁻, generating a turn-on bioluminescence response in both aqueous solution and fLuc-transfected CT26 cells. Notably, this probe enabled real-time visualization of small tumors in both CRC and colorectal cancer liver metastasis (CRLM) mouse models, achieving high signal-to-background ratios of 65:1 and 41:1, respectively. Moreover, GClO-luc was successfully applied to fecal analysis, showing significantly higher bioluminescence intensity in the feces from CRC and CRLM mice. These findings demonstrate that GClO-luc represents a powerful dual-responsive diagnostic tool for cancer diagnosis and stool examinations.
- γ-Glutamyl transferase,
- Hypochlorite,
- Bioluminescence probe,
- Dual-responsive,
- Stool analysis
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