Exploring butyrylcholinesterase expression in diseases using a promising fluorescent imaging tool

The level of butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) in living organisms is closely linked to disease occurrence. Developing effective methods to monitor BChE levels in living systems is essential for investigating the pathogenesis of BChE-related diseases and for early screening of the diseases. However, due to the lack of intuitive imaging tools, the expression level of BChE in many diseases remains to be explored. In this study, an ultrasensitive near-infrared fluorescent probe, LAN-bche, was developed to explore BChE expression in liver cancer, liver injury, and diabetes. LAN-bche is stable, water-soluble, ultrasensitive and high selective for BChE without disturbing from AChE, can detect BChE in dual-mode using fluorescence strategy (LOD = 0.056 U/L) and colorimetric strategy (LOD = 4.92 U/L). LAN-bche was employed to investigate the BChE expression both in liver cancer and liver injury diseases and confirmed that BChE expression was downregulated in both models, which was speculated to be due to the destruction of ability to generate BChE caused by the damage and cancerization of the liver cells. Furthermore, BChE expression in diabetes was explored and confirmed the upregulation of BChE expression in diabetes. In brief, our study shed light on BChE expression in liver cancer, liver injury, and diabetes and provides support for further research on the pathogenesis of BChE-related diseases. Besides, the probe LAN-bche is a robust tool for tracking BChE that is poised to facilitate imaging studies of BChE expression in numerous disease models.