Live-cell visualization of cytochrome c: a tool to explore apoptosis

Apoptosis dysfunction is associated with several malignancies, including cancer and autoimmune diseases. Apoptosis restoration could be an attractive therapeutic approach to those diseases. Mitochondrial outer membrane permeabilization is regarded as the point of no return in the ‘classical’ apoptosis triggering pathway. Cytoplasmic release of cytochrome c (cyt c), a mitochondrial electron transporter, is a prominent indicator of such critical step. Therefore, visualizing cyt c efflux in living cells is a convenient approach to address apoptosis triggering and monitor performance of apoptosis restoration strategies. Recent years have been prolific in the development of biosensors to visualize cyt c mitochondrial efflux in living cells, by fluorescence microscopy. These biosensors specifically detect endogenous, untagged cyt c, while showing efficient cellular uptake and reduced cell toxicity. A common aspect is their fluorescence quenching in the absence or presence of bound cyt c, resulting in two main biosensor types: ‘turn ON’ and ‘turn OFF’. In some of these systems, fluorescence intensity of fluorophore-bound aptamers is enhanced upon cyt c binding. In others, cyt c binding to quantum dots quenches their fluorescence. In the present minireview, I describe these biosensors and briefly introduce some hypotheses that could be addressed using these novel tools.