Quinolimide-based peptide biosensor for probing p25 in vitro and in living cells

CDK5 kinase is activated through interactions with different partners including the p35/p25 regulators. Active CDK5 plays a key role in several neuronal functions and its hyperactivity contributes to a variety of neurodegenerative processes and several human cancers, in particular glioblastomas and neuroblastomas. In order to probe partners that interact with CDK5, we designed and synthesized fluorescent quinolimide-labelled peptides derived from the C-helix of CDK5, which were implemented to probe CDK5 partners in vitro and by in cellulo imaging in U87 glioblastoma and N2a neuroblastoma cells. Ectopic expression of a NIR fluorescent protein miRFP670 fusion with p25 (p25-miRFP670) in N2a cells induced FRET between a quinolimide-labelled peptide biosensor and p25-miRFP670, and fluorescence intensity was proportional to the expression level of p25, thereby demonstrating the potential of the quinolimide-labelled peptide biosensor to report on p25 relative abundance.