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Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP): is seeing believing and is that enough?

Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP): is seeing believing and is that enough?

Shorter, Susan, Pettit, Marie W., Dyer, Paul D.R., Coakley-Youngs, J. Emma, Gorringe-Pattrick, Monique A. M., El-Daher, Samer and Richardson, Simon ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7927-0649 (2017) Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP): is seeing believing and is that enough? Journal of Drug Targeting, 25 (9-10). pp. 809-817. ISSN 1061-186X (Print), 1029-2330 (Online) (doi:10.1080/1061186X.2017.1358725)

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Abstract

Intracellular compartmentalisation is a significant barrier to the successful nucleocytosolic delivery of biologics. The endocytic system has been shown to be responsible for compartmentalisation, providing an entry point, and
triggers for the activation of drug delivery systems, such as pH. Consequently, many of the technologies used to understand endocytosis have found utility within the field of drug delivery. The use of fluorescent proteins as markers denoting compartmentalisation within the endocytic system has become commonplace. Several of the limitations associated with the use of green fluorescent protein (GFP) within the context of drug delivery have been explored here by asking a series of related questions: (1) Are molecules that regulate fusion to a specific compartment (i.e. Rab- or SNARE-GFP fusions) a good choice of marker for that compartment? (2) How reliable were GFP-marker overexpression experiments when used to define a given endocytic compartment? (3) Can GST-GFP act as a fluid phase endocytic probe? (4) Was GFP fluorescence a robust indicator of (GFP) protein integrity? This study concluded that there are many appropriate and useful applications for GFP, however, thought and an understanding of the biological and physicochemical character of these markers are required for the generation of meaningful data.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: GFP, Marker, Endocytosis, Protein stability, Protease, Drug delivery, Membrane
Subjects: R Medicine > RS Pharmacy and materia medica
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group: Faculty of Engineering & Science
Faculty of Engineering & Science > Biomedical Science Research Group
Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > School of Human Sciences (HUM)
Last Modified: 09 Oct 2021 04:45
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/16592

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