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Venetoclax (ABT-199) and idasanutlin (RG7388) are efficient anticancer drugs targeting two essential apoptosis markers, Bcl-2 and MDM2, respectively. Recent studies have shown that the combination of these two drugs leads to remarkable enhancement of anticancer efficacy, both in vitro and in vivo. In an attempt to disclose the relationships of their protein targets, competitive affinity-based proteome profiling coupled with bioimaging was employed to characterize their protein targets in the same cancer cell line and tumor tissue. A series of protein hits, including ITPR1, GSR, RER1, PDIA3, Apoa1, and Tnfrsf17 were simultaneously identified by pull-down/LC-MS/MS with the two sets of affinity-based probes. Dual imaging was successfully carried out, with the simultaneous detection of Bcl-2 and MDM2 expression in various cancer cells. This could facilitate the novel diagnostic and therapeutic strategies of dual targeting of Bcl-2/MDM2.

The bioorthogonality of tetrazole photoclick chemistry has been reassessed. Upon photolysis of a tetrazole, the highly reactive nitrile imine formed undergoes rapid nucleophilic reaction with a variety of nucleophiles present in a biological system, along with the expected cycloaddition with alkenes. The alternative use of the tetrazole photoclick reaction was thus explored: tetrazoles were incorporated into Bodipy and Acedan dyes, providing novel photo-crosslinkers with one- and two-photon fluorescence Turn-ON properties that may be developed into protein-detecting biosensors. Further introduction of these photo-activatable, fluorogenic moieties into staurosporine resulted in the corresponding probes capable of photoinduced, no-wash imaging of endogenous kinase activities in live mammalian cells.