Lighting Up Cellular Dynamics with Fluorescent Biosensors: Design and Applications in Pathophysiology

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Background

The development of fluorescent probes for the visualization of biomolecules in living cells has raised the opportunity to track both intracellular and intercellular mechanisms in real-time, providing unprecedented insight into the dynamics of physiological processes. The use of these sensors, coupled to advanced microscopy techniques, enables a precise and quantitative spatiotemporal description of such processes, and can be leveraged in the living tissue both ex vivo or in vivo. Besides their extraordinary ability to make the molecular processes within a cell visible, the versatility of traditional and newly developed fluorescent probes makes them suitable for use in a large variety of fields, including basic and translational research, as well as biomedical applications such as preclinical drug testing or early diagnosis.

The most widely used fluorescent probes are those sensitive to fluctuations of the intracellular concentration of calcium ion (Ca2+), a fundamental second messenger in cell physiology. The possibility to measure cellular Ca2+ dynamics has revolutionized the life sciences since the 1980s, and the constant technological development in the field enables studies in a wide range of tissues and cell types, with increasing spatial and temporal resolution. Moreover, novel functional fluorescent probes targeting a variety of other biomolecules and processes have been designed in the past decades. These include neurotransmitters and neuromodulators (glutamate, dopamine, acetylcholine, norepinephrine…), monoatomic ions (Zn2+, K+, Mg2+, Na+, H+…), small metabolites (ATP, glucose), second messengers (cyclic AMP, IP3, diacylglycerol), reactive oxygen/nitrogen species (hydrogen peroxide, singlet oxygen, nitric oxide…), protein effectors (caspases, kinases…), voltage, and others.

The goals of this Research Topic are:
(i) to promote the dissemination of state-of-the-art fluorescence imaging techniques for tracking a broad range of cellular signaling processes in health or disease;
(ii) to explore the application of fluorescent indicators to a range of physiological and pathological aspects, such as, but not limited to, cell-to-cell communication, cell death, migration, inflammation, neuromodulation, cancer progression;
(iii) to discuss major achievements/strategies for the application of fluorescent indicators to the study of different biological systems with high spatiotemporal resolution ex vivo or in vivo.

We welcome studies on technological developments related to the use of fluorescent indicators, as well as latest advances on the application of fluorescent probes to different fields of physiological research. We invite authors to contribute with Original Research, Methods, Review, Mini Review, Perspective or Brief Research Report articles, related to one or more of the following sub-topics:

• Synthetic or chemogenetic indicators: generation and applications
• Genetically encoded indicators: strategies for development
• New approaches for the expression of protein-based biosensors in different tissues/organs
• Tissue processing and preparation for in vivo/ex vivo fluorescence microscopy
• Fluorescence imaging applications in organ-on-a-chip platforms
• Fluorescence microscopy techniques: one-photon, multiphoton, super-resolution, microendoscopy, fiber photometry
• Development of transgenic animal models for constitutive or inducible expression of fluorescent biosensors

Keywords: Fluorescence microscopy, Fluorescent biosensors, Synthetic indicators, Genetically encoded indicators, Cellular resolution imaging, Live tissue imaging, Molecular signaling pathways, Second messengers, Spatiotemporal dynamics, Transgenic models

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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