武汉大学化学与分子科学学院Heng Song课题组在研究中取得进展。他们研究出一种高对比度自噬溶酶体探针，用于检测自噬体和自噬溶酶体之间的相互作用。2023年12月19日，国际知名学术期刊《中国化学》发表了这一成果。

自噬是一个多步骤的细胞代谢过程，在这个过程中细胞清除受损和不需要的物质。在自噬过程中，自噬体与溶酶体结合形成自噬溶媒体。自噬体膜组分通过自噬体组分循环(ACR)从自噬溶酶体中回收，而溶酶体组分通过自噬溶酶体重组( ALR)过程在自噬溶酶体表面循环。自噬酶体含有自噬体和溶酶体的成分。然而，在细胞器水平上，自噬体与自噬体或溶酶体之间是否存在一种联系尚不清楚。

该研究设计了一种基于非对称norcyanine的pH和粘度双控的线粒体靶向荧光探针Mito-Q，以实现含线粒体自噬溶酶体的高对比度成像。Mito-Q不仅能以高灵敏度有效检测线粒体黏度变化和线粒体自噬，更重要的是，通过HeLa细胞实时共聚焦成像，研究者可以观察自噬过程中含线粒体的自噬溶酶体和自噬体(FMAA)的融合过程。

附：英文原文

Title: A high-contrast autolysosome probe for detecting interaction between autophagosomes and autolysosomes in mitophagy

Author: Weihua Wang, Chu Han, Shengjie Xie, Zisong Cong, Zixuan Yang, Yuxin Feng, Limin Xiang, Heng Song

Issue&Volume: 2023-12-19

Abstract: Autophagy is a multi-step cell metabolism process in which cells remove damaged and unwanted materials. During autophagy, autophagosomes fuse with lysosomes to form autophagosomes. Autophagosomal membrane components are recycled from autolysosomes through the autophagosomal components recycling (ACR), while lysosomal components circulate on the autolysosomal surface through the autophagic lysosome reformation (ALR) process. Autolysosomes contain components from autophagosomes and lysosomes. However, whether there is a fusion between autolysosome and autophagosome or lysosome at the organelle level remains unknown. In this study, a pH and viscosity dual-controlled mitochondria-targeting fluorescent probe Mito-Q was designed based on an asymmetric norcyanine to achieve the high-contrast imaging of mitochondria-containing autolysosomes. Mito-Q not only effectively detected mitochondrial viscosity changes and mitophagy with high sensitivity, but more importantly, the fusion of mitochondria-containing autolysosomes and autophagosomes (FMAA) was observed during autophagy by the real-time confocal imaging of HeLa cells.

DOI: 10.1002/cjoc.202300639

Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cjoc.202300639