Caspofungin-Based Red-Emissive Probes for Fluorescent Imaging of Pathogenic Fungi
Abstract
Fungal infections are an often-neglected cause of morbidity worldwide, while their inaccurate and often inconclusive diagnosis indirectly promotes high morbidity and the development of antimicrobial resistance. Here, the clinically used semisynthetic echinocandin antifungal caspofungin was selectively conjugated to red-emitting fluorescent dyes to develop new optical imaging probes for fungal detection. The probes were characterized using established 2D NMR techniques to determine the specific position of the fluorophore on the peptide backbone, and both isomers demonstrated selective labeling of pathogenic fungal strains with similar efficacy. Selective multiplexed imaging of target species was achieved in a co-culture of fungi and bacteria, including when using benchtop imaging platforms.
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BibTeX
@article{klausen2026caspofunginbased,
title = {{Caspofungin-Based Red-Emissive Probes for Fluorescent Imaging of Pathogenic Fungi}},
author = {Maxime Klausen and Richa Sharma and Jason Brown and Gordon Ramage and Mark Bradley},
journal = {JACS Au},
year = {2026},
month = may,
doi = {10.1021/jacsau.6c00209},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05747150v1},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Caspofungin-Based Red-Emissive Probes for Fluorescent Imaging of Pathogenic Fungi
AU - Maxime Klausen
AU - Richa Sharma
AU - Jason Brown
AU - Gordon Ramage
AU - Mark Bradley
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/05/13
JO - JACS Au
DO - 10.1021/jacsau.6c00209
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05747150v1
AB - Fungal infections are an often-neglected cause of morbidity worldwide, while their inaccurate and often inconclusive diagnosis indirectly promotes high morbidity and the development of antimicrobial resistance. Here, the clinically used semisynthetic echinocandin antifungal caspofungin was selectively conjugated to red-emitting fluorescent dyes to develop new optical imaging probes for fungal detection. The probes were characterized using established 2D NMR techniques to determine the specific position of the fluorophore on the peptide backbone, and both isomers demonstrated selective labeling of pathogenic fungal strains with similar efficacy. Selective multiplexed imaging of target species was achieved in a co-culture of fungi and bacteria, including when using benchtop imaging platforms.
SN - 2691-3704
ER -