Engineering a tumor-specific and mitochondria targeted fluorescent probe for modulated autophagy and exploited anti-cancer therapy

Autophagy induced by mitophagy is related to numerous physiological and pathological processes, which also could represent a tumor-suppressor mechanism. The induction of apoptosis by persistent autophagy provides a new opportunity for cancer treatment. Herein, in this work, a biotinylated fluorescence probe (BO-biotin) based BF2 complex of curcumin analogues was designed and prepared successfully. The biotin-connected compound could target mitochondria in live cancer cells. We could visualize the complete mitophagy-related autophagy process induced by the curcumin analogues BO-biotin with the prolonged time. In addition, taking advantage of the analysis of the vital rate and expression of related proteins, the apoptotic assay results and mechanism investigation further verified that this compound could induce apoptosis of cancer cells by autophagy modulation. These findings demonstrate for the first time that the tumor-specific, mitochondria targeted and autophagy-modulating fluorescent probe can be employed as a new anticancer therapy.