{"doi":"10.3390/molecules28052260","title":"Spatiotemporal Imaging of Zinc Ions in Zebrafish Live Brain Tissue Enabled by Fluorescent Bionanoprobes","abstract":"The zebrafish is a powerful model organism to study the mechanisms governing transition metal ions within whole brain tissue. Zinc is one of the most abundant metal ions in the brain, playing a critical pathophysiological role in neurodegenerative diseases. The homeostasis of free, ionic zinc (Zn2+) is a key intersection point in many of these diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. A Zn2+ imbalance can eventuate several disturbances that may lead to the development of neurodegenerative changes. Therefore, compact, reliable approaches that allow the optical detection of Zn2+ across the whole brain would contribute to our current understanding of the mechanisms that underlie neurological disease pathology. We developed an engineered fluorescence protein-based nanoprobe that can spatially and temporally resolve Zn2+ in living zebrafish brain tissue. The self-assembled engineered fluorescence protein on gold nanoparticles was shown to be confined to defined locations within the brain tissue, enabling site specific studies, compared to fluorescent protein-based molecular tools, which diffuse throughout the brain tissue. Two-photon excitation microscopy confirmed the physical and photometrical stability of these nanoprobes in living zebrafish (Danio rerio) brain tissue, while the addition of Zn2+ quenched the nanoprobe fluorescence. Combining orthogonal sensing methods with our engineered nanoprobes will enable the study of imbalances in homeostatic Zn2+ regulation. The proposed bionanoprobe system offers a versatile platform to couple metal ion specific linkers and contribute to the understanding of neurological diseases.","journal":"Molecules","year":2023,"id":374345,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9579,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2023-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":727744,"name":"Sarah K. Woolfolk","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":978888,"name":"Noraida Martínez-Rivera","orcid":"0000-0001-6721-4394","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1136313,"name":"Mathew W. Jaeschke","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":340422,"name":"Eduardo Rosa‐Molinar","orcid":"0000-0003-2057-8937","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":342932,"name":"Candan Tamerler","orcid":"0000-0002-1960-2218","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":906183,"name":"Michael A. Johnson","orcid":"0000-0001-5078-9896","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":395937,"name":"Romana Jarošová","orcid":"0000-0002-0529-8294","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":53,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T01:16:11.341687Z","pmid":"36903504","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}