Sub-Cellular Imaging: Towards to Drug Discovery and Organelle-Targeted Therapy

Dear Colleagues,

The crosstalk between organelle interactions is involved in many cellular processes. For instance, mitophagy, a process that selectively removes redundant or damaged mitochondria, plays an important role in regulating the number of intracellular mitochondria and maintaining mitochondrial functions. Dysregulated organelle interactions are implicated in many diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. To date, organelle interactions have often been studied at the cellular level through methods such as flow cytometry, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays, Western blotting, and confocal fluorescence microscopy. These methods only report the cumulative level of total organelles (such as lysosomes) and ignore individual organelle interaction events that occur at the fusion between individual organelles. Although confocal fluorescence microscopy can detect organelles using organelle-specific dye, it is difficult to distinguish subcellular structures at a resolution beyond 200 nm. Moreover, the electron microscope does not provide details on the interactive behavior of individual organelle microenvironments in living systems. Thus, a novel strategy is needed to capture detailed information on the organelle–organelle crosstalk. Therefore, a direct evaluation of the subcellular response after drug exposure, such as the organelle morphology, number, distribution, interactions, and bioactive substances, may be an excellent strategy for understanding the involved drug’s mechanism and target validation.

Newly developed technologies such as super-resolution imaging, which includes stimulated emission deletion (STED), structured illumination microscopy (SIM), and stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (STORM), as well as other single-molecule super-resolution imaging techniques, are enhanced imaging tools developed for investigating the dynamics of subcellular structures. This Special Issue plans to present an overview of the most recent advances in the field of subcellular labeling and their applications in organelle-targeted labeling and therapy. The aim of this Special Issue is to introduce new technologies, models, methods, potential drugs, and imaging probes for the development of subcellular imaging. We welcome original research, reviews, and perspective articles on themes including, but not limited to: novel molecules with drug potential based on subcellular targeted therapy; new techniques such as nanoscopic imaging, optogenetics, single-molecule imaging, photodynamic therapy, new molecular biology techniques, etc. to clarify the underlying pathology of organelle-related diseases; new analytical methods for quantifying subcellular dynamics; new research models using cells, reproductive cells, zebrafish, C. elegans, or organoids for exploring subcellular functions; and novel imaging probes for subcellular tracking and organelle-related labeling and disease therapy.

Dr. Qixin Chen
Prof. Dr. Peixue Ling
Guest Editors

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• subcellular dynamics
• organelle
• probe
• imaging
• labeling
• theranostics