A Bioorthogonal Dual Fluorogenic Probe for the Live‐Cell Monitoring of Nutrient Uptake by Mammalian Cells

Abstract

Cells rely heavily on the uptake of exogenous nutrients for survival, growth, and differentiation. Yet quantifying the uptake of small molecule nutrients at the single cell level is difficult. Here we present a new approach to studying the nutrient uptake in live single cells using Inverse Electron‐Demand Diels Alder (IEDDA) chemistry. We have modified carboxyfluorescein‐diacetate‐succinimidyl esters (CFSE) – a quenched fluorophore that can covalently react with proteins and is only turned on in the cytosol of a cell following esterase activity – with a tetrazine. This tetrazine serves as a second quencher for the pendant fluorophore. Upon reaction with nutrients modified with an electron‐rich or strained dienophile in an IEDDA reaction, this quenching group is destroyed, thereby enabling the probe to fluoresce. This has allowed us to monitor the uptake of a variety of dienophile‐containing nutrients in live primary immune cell populations using flow cytometry and live‐cell microscopy.