Fluorescent-based nanosensors for selective detection of a wide range of biological macromolecules: A comprehensive review

Development of the acute and chronic inflammatory responses known as gout and pseudogout are associated with the deposition of monosodium urate (MSU) or calcium pyrophosphate dihydrate (CPPD) crystals, respectively, in joints and periarticular tissues. Although MSU crystals were first identified as the aetiological agent of gout in the eighteenth century and more recently as a 'danger signal' released from dying cells, little is known about the molecular mechanisms underlying MSU- or CPPD-induced inflammation. Here we show that MSU and CPPD engage the caspase-1-activating NALP3 (also called cryopyrin) inflammasome, resulting in the production of active interleukin (IL)-1beta and IL-18. Macrophages from mice deficient in various components of the inflammasome such as caspase-1, ASC and NALP3 are defective in crystal-induced IL-1beta activation. Moreover, an impaired neutrophil influx is found in an in vivo model of crystal-induced peritonitis in inflammasome-deficient mice or mice deficient in the IL-1beta receptor (IL-1R). These findings provide insight into the molecular processes underlying the inflammatory conditions of gout and pseudogout, and further support a pivotal role of the inflammasome in several autoinflammatory diseases.

Important Ca2+ signals in the cytosol and organelles are often extremely localized and hard to measure. To overcome this problem we have constructed new fluorescent indicators for Ca2+ that are genetically encoded without cofactors and are targetable to specific intracellular locations. We have dubbed these fluorescent indicators 'cameleons'. They consist of tandem fusions of a blue- or cyan-emitting mutant of the green fluorescent protein (GFP), calmodulin, the calmodulin-binding peptide M13, and an enhanced green- or yellow-emitting GFP. Binding of Ca2+ makes calmodulin wrap around the M13 domain, increasing the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the flanking GFPs. Calmodulin mutations can tune the Ca2+ affinities to measure free Ca2+ concentrations in the range 10(-8) to 10(-2) M. We have visualized free Ca2+ dynamics in the cytosol, nucleus and endoplasmic reticulum of single HeLa cells transfected with complementary DNAs encoding chimaeras bearing appropriate localization signals. Ca2+ concentration in the endoplasmic reticulum of individual cells ranged from 60 to 400 microM at rest, and 1 to 50 microM after Ca2+ mobilization. FRET is also an indicator of the reversible intermolecular association of cyan-GFP-labelled calmodulin with yellow-GFP-labelled M13. Thus FRET between GFP mutants can monitor localized Ca2+ signals and protein heterodimerization in individual live cells.