Design of a specific colonic mucus marker using a human commensal bacterium cell surface domain.

ABSTRACT: Imaging living cells and organs requires innovative, specific, efficient, and well tolerated fluorescent markers targeting cellular components. Such tools will allow proceeding to the dynamic analysis of cells and the adaptation of tissues to environmental cues. In this study, we have identified and synthesized a novel non-toxic fluorescent marker allowing a specific fluorescent staining of the human colonic mucus. Our strategy to identify a molecule able to specifically bind to the human colonic mucus was on the basis of the mucus adhesion properties of commensal bacteria. We identified and characterized the mucus-binding property of a 70-amino acid domain (MUB(70)) expressed on the surface of Lactobacillus strains. The chemical synthesis of MUB(70) was achieved using the human commensal

SUBMITTER: Coic YM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3346076 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature