(733g) Spatiotemporal Intracellular Nitric Oxide Signaling Captured Using Internalized, Near Infrared Fluorescent Carbon Nanotube Nanosensors

Nitric oxide (NO), a biologically important reactive nitrogen species, is implicated in numerous pathologies but is also vital to the proper function of the vascular, nervous and immune systems. These paradoxical roles of NO have yet to be fully explained, but are hypothesized to be governed by local NO concentrations within tissues and cells. This article describes a state-of-the-art technology, using an intracellular near infrared fluorescent single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) sensors, from which spatial and temporal detection of NO can be monitored at a single cell level with a resolution superior to any existing method. This sensor allows for the evaluation of intracellular NO gradients and dynamics for the first time with results suggesting the presence of local intracellular sources and sinks of NO linked to cellular machinery involved in signaling. With this assay, intracellular transient phenomena involved in disease and healthy cell processes can now be documented and characterized.