{"60140":{"#nid":"60140","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Staring (Cell) Death In The Face: Imaging Agents For Necrotic Cells","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDNA usually occupies a privileged place inside the cell. Although cells in our body die all the time, an orderly process of disassembly (programmed cell death or apoptosis) generally keeps cellular DNA from leaking all over the place. DNA\u2019s presence outside the cell means something is wrong: tissue injury has occurred and cells are undergoing necrosis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University have devised a way to exploit the properties of extracellular DNA to create an imaging agent for injured tissue. Niren Murthy and Mike Davis recently published a paper in Organic Letters describing the creation of \u201cHoechst-IR.\u201d This imaging agent essentially consists of the DNA-binding compound Hoechst 33258 (often used to stain cells before microscopy), attached to a dye that is visible in the near-infrared range. A water-loving polymer chain between the two keeps the new molecule from crossing cell membranes and binding DNA inside the cell.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMurthy\u2019s group teamed up with Davis to show that after an artificial heart attack, mice injected with Hoechst-IR have the compound accumulate in the heart\u2019s necrotic zone \u2013 where cardiac muscle cells are dying. They also demonstrated accumulation of the compound in the lungs of mice in a model of sepsis.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMurthy says his group is exploring other applications of this approach.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201dWe are currently looking at the synthesis of new molecules with new applications,\u201d he said, \u201cWe believe this approach will be quite powerful and we are excited by the possible future directions our research will take this platform.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EResearchers from the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University have devised a way to exploit the properties of extracellular DNA to create an imaging agent for injured tissue.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"15436","created_gmt":"2010-07-21 10:16:10","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:07:11","author":"Automator","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2010-07-21T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2010-07-21T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"groups":[{"id":"1317","name":"News Briefs"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"},{"id":"145","name":"Engineering"},{"id":"146","name":"Life Sciences and Biology"},{"id":"135","name":"Research"}],"keywords":[{"id":"10307","name":"Emory; Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering;  Hoechst-IR"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDon Fernandez\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E404-894-6016\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:don.fernandez@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Edon.fernandez@comm.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["don.fernandez@comm.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}