Click chemistry approach for imaging intracellular and intratissue distribution of curcumin and its nanoscale carrier.

This study was aimed at developing a fluorescence imaging approach to simultaneously characterize the delivery and distribution of a bioactive molecule, curcumin, and its micelle based nanoscale carrier in cells and tissue models. To enable imaging of curcumin, a monoalkyne derivative of curcumin was synthesized and purified using LC-MS. Intracellular uptake of curcumin was characterized using a click chemistry reaction between a monoalkyne modified curcumin and Alexa-488 azide fluorescent dye in cells and tissues. Fluorescence images of cells and tissues incubated with monoalkyne curcumin showed specific detection of intracellular delivered monoalkyne curcumin using the click chemistry reaction. The fluorescence imaging results also demonstrated significant improvement in detection sensitivity of intracellular delivered curcumin as compared to measurements based on native fluorescence of unmodified curcumin. Intracellular uptake of monoalkyne curcumin was characterized as a function of incubation time an...