The Smart Probe

During the past years, optical molecular imaging has become a choice mean of studying biological processes directly in vivo on small animals.

What is an optical probe?

An optical probe is a small molecule which intereacts with a biological phenomenon once injected to an organism. Consequently to this interaction, the emission of an optical signal (i.e. photons) occurs, thus bringing this specific biological event to the fore.

This technology has now been used extensively in vitro, notably in microscopy.

In vivo imaging systems, based on very sensitive detectors, have been developed to image small animals and, very recently, human beings.

Quidd develops highly specific optical molecular probes

To act on the specificity of a probe and thus increase the signal-to-background ratio, a few options can be envisaged:

Smart approach:

most of the probes that we design are smart (i.e. activable). This category of probe concerns active biological phenomena (i.e. enzymatic activity, pH variation). Activable probes are almost undetectable in the absence of the targeted phenomenon.

Substrate recognition optimization:

some enzymes such as MMPs and kinases for instance show very broad substrate specificity. To insure a higher specificity, Quidd develops innovative approaches allowing the selective targeting of such biological targets.

New types of light emission systems: 

Profluorescence and chemiluminescence: highly innovative development fields.

- Profluorescence:

- Chemiluminescence:

This approach of spontaneous light emission (no need of excitation) allows a dramatic decrease of the background noise.

Bioavailability properties optimization:

an original catalogue of pharmacokinetics and bioavailability modulating blocks associated to an elegant click chemistry approach allows us to optimize the biological features of a probe. Quidd's probes backbone is designed to be easily fine tuned by grafting one or more building block(s) to attain desired biological goals.

Available probes :

• Caspase-3 activable probes usable notably to cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases follow-up and cancer treatment efficacy assessment;
• MMPs activable probes usable notably to cancer, fibrosis or arthritis detection.

Acknowledgments: our main contributor in chemistry is Prof. Pierre-Yves Renard at University of Rouen

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