Patent Application: US-201113637551-A

Abstract:
the present invention relates a method to determine the presence of a photon producing biological marker in a cell , tissue or organism of interest . the method is based on fluorescence by unbound excitation from luminescence and comprises the steps of a ) providing conditions suitable for the biological marker to produce at least one first photon by luminescence ; b ) providing a fuel probe pair - upper disposed in proximity to the cell , tissue or organism , wherein the at least one first photon of step a ) excites the fpp - u , which emits at least one second photon . the fpp - u may be selected from the group of quantum dots , carbon nanotubes , fluorescent proteins , diamond nanocrystals and metalloporphyrins . this method is characterized in that said biological marker and said fpp - u are not bound and in that each of the at least one second photon are of a longer wavelength than each of the at least one first photon .

Description:
there will now be described by way of example a specific mode implemented by the inventors . in the following description numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding . it will be apparent however , to one skilled in the art , that the present invention may be practiced without limitation to these specific details . in other instances , well known methods and structures have not been described so as not to unnecessarily obscure the description . the bioluminescent e . coli carrying the plasmid expressing the lux operon ( puc18 - mini - tn7t - gm - lux referred to as rt57 ) is described in choi et al . ( 20 ) and is noted as rt57 throughout . qtracker 705 non - targeted quantum dots were acquired from invitrogen and kept in the dark at 4 ° c . until use ( noted as qd705 ). to prepare the agar plates , 25 ml of warm sterile agar was added to a 10 cm petri dish under sterile conditions and allowed to cool . congo red ( sigma ) was prepared as a 1 % w / v in sterile h 2 o . low melting agarose ( lonza , france ) was used for pearl construction . normal physiological saline ( 0 . 9 % nacl , referred to as ps ) was prepared in house and used for all dilutions . for the congo red + agar plates ( cragar ), 4 ml of 1 % w / v congo red ( sigma ) in sterile h 2 o was added to 400 ml of warm sterile agar for a final dye concentration of 0 . 01 % in agar . the solution was well mixed and then 25 ml were added to a 10 cm petri dish and allowed to cool . the resulting dishes contain a 5 mm thick layer of agar or cragar . after the agar and cragar had solidified , the prepared plates were inverted and stored at 4 ° c . until used . for all animal experiments , female six - week old balb / c mice ( janvier , france ) were used . the day before imaging , an overnight culture of the rt57 was established . the following morning , the od 600 was acquired and when necessary , plated depending on the appropriate dilution performed to achieve a final concentration of 1000 bacteria / 5 μa of saline . the bacteria were then plated depending on the desired orientation ( generally a 3 × 4 matrix of 5 μl aliquots ). black tape was used to create two 2 mm × 3 mm optical windows on a reduced - volume disposable cuvette ( ratiolab , germany ), with the two windows situated on opposite faces of the cuvette , and located near , but away from , the base . this modified cuvette was filled with 1 ml of rt57 stock from an overnight culture , covered by a piece of black paper , and placed into the ivis imaging system . the black paper inhibited the observation of the rt57 bioluminescence . two unmodified reduced volume cuvettes were filled with either 1 ml of ps , or 1 ml of the previously described qd705 solution , were then placed on either side of the modified cuvette containing rt57 such that the three cuvettes were axially aligned and at a distance of 10 mm between the central and exterior cuvettes ( face to face ). the resulting luminescence was observed for the open and qd705 filter sets . after acquisition , the distance between the two unmodified cuvettes and the central cuvette was increased by 5 mm , and the luminescence observed . this was repeated up to a total separation of 30 mm for three different bacterial cultures . in an alternative experiment a 5 μl aliquot of stock rt57 was placed onto the center of an empty petri dish . starting at a distance of 5 mm ( center to center ) from the bacteria , 2 μl aliquots of qd705 were placed radiating outward , increasing in 5 mm intervals up to a total distance of 2 cm . the plate was imaged for 300 s using the qd705 - specific filter set . a fluorescence image was acquired to verify qd705 location . multiple experimental conditions were established using two quartz tandem cuvettes ( inset table fig7 , ps : physiological saline ; qd705 : qd705 solution ; rt57 : bioluminescent e . coli ; cr : congo red ) separated by a piece of black paper . a small window was cut into the paper in order to allow the bioluminescent photons to pass . the paper also provided a physical separation between the two cuvettes ensuring that no physical contact could occur between the qd705 and the rt57 . for each condition the luminescence intensity was observed under both the rt57 - and the qd705 - specific filter sets ( noted as 480 and qd705 respectively ), with each condition performed in triplicate . a perkin - elmer uv / vis dual path spectrometer with a 1 nm slit width and set to a scan rate of 480 nm / min was used to acquire the absorption spectra for the congo red , whole mouse blood , liver , and lung ( fig1 ). sterile water was used as the reference . for each acquisition , 1 ml of each analyte was added to a 1 ml plastic cuvette with a 1 cm path length . the rt57 bioluminescence emission spectrum was recorded with a pti quanta - master qm4cw spectrofluorometer ( pti , lawrenceville , n . j .) using a 1 cm path length quartz cuvette thermostated at 25 ° c . luminescence was recorded from 400 to 750 nm with 5 nm slit widths . the qd705 excitation and emission spectra were acquired with 5 nm slit widths . an ivis 100 whole animal imaging system ( xenogen corporation , caliper life sciences , alameda , calif .) equipped with a cooled ccd and a filter wheel was used to acquire all bioluminescent images . the filters used were a 610 long pass ( 610lp ) and a cy5 . 5 band pass ( 695 nm - 770 nm , also referred to as the qd705 filter ). one location within the filter wheel was kept empty for total light detection , termed the open filter set . for each experiment , the ccd was cooled to − 105 ° c . and the dark box warmed to 37 ° c . unless otherwise stated , the acquisition settings for the living image ( xenogen ) software version 3 . 1 were set as the following : 5 minute acquisition time for all three filter sets , 8 × bin , field of view c ( 20 cm ), and f - stop 1 . in the case of a time course experiment , an image sequence was established such that the open , 610lp , and cy5 . 5 images were acquired sequentially and then followed by a 45 minute delay creating a one hour image cycle . this cycle was allowed to repeat until desired . two different conditions were established to measure the effect of distance on the rt57 - qd705 photon production , with condition 1 involving four agar plates and condition 2 using two agar plates and two cragar plates ( fig3 ). before the placement of the bacteria and qd705 , the required plates were removed from the 4 ° c . storage , allowed to warm to room temperature , and checked for contamination . for condition 1 , twelve 5 μl aliquots of the bacterial solution were pipetted in a 3 row by 4 column ( 3 × 4 ) matrix onto an agar plate with gentamycine at a final concentration of 50 μg / ml . the droplets of bacteria , containing 1000 cells each , were allowed to settle into the agar ( plate 1 ). a second agar plate was set aside until the final construction of the plate stack ( plate 2 ). three aliquots of 2 μl of qd705 were then pipetted onto the third agar plate ( plate 3 ) such that , when stacked on top of the plate containing the bacteria ( plate 1 ), each aliquot of qd705 would be vertically aligned with each aliquot of bacteria for column 3 . a second set of qd705 aliquots were placed onto the fourth agar plate ( plate 4 ) with each aliquot aligned with the corresponding bacteria of column 4 on plate 1 . finally , after ensuring that the bacteria had settled into the agar , a 2 μl aliquot of qd705 was added directly onto each bacterial aliquot located in column 2 on plate 1 . the plates were inverted and stacked in order with plate 1 on bottom , then the empty plate 2 , followed by plates 3 and 4 . the stack was then placed into the ivis 100 and the image sequence started . for condition 2 , the same procedure was followed except plates 2 and 3 consisted of cragar instead of agar . the total plate height was measured to be 14 mm with an agar or cragar depth of 5 mm ( fig3 ). the total distance between the rt57 and the corresponding qd705 aliquot were as follows : 0 mm for column 2 , 28 mm for column 3 , and 42 mm for column 4 . to determine if the bioluminescent rt57 were able to excite the qd705 without the need of physical binding , a series of 1 . 5 ml eppendorf tubes were prepared . the first tube included 10 μl at of bacterial stock diluted up to 100 μl using physiological saline ( ps ). a second tube was prepared using 10 μl of bacterial stock , 4 μl of qd705 , and 86 μl , of ps . two luminescent controls were established with the first including 4 μl of qd705 diluted up to 100 μl and the second consisting of 100 μl ps only . all four tubes were gently mixed by pipette to create homogenous solutions and placed into the imaging system with black plastic separators placed between each tube to minimize signal crossover . the resulting bioluminescence was observed for 5 s under both filter sets . presence of qd705 was confirmed using fluorescence imaging . three female six - week old balb / c mouse were anaesthetized with ketamine / xylazine . for each mouse a cardiac puncture was performed to obtain around 1 ml of blood . the liver was removed and placed into 2 ml of chilled pbs . finally , the lungs were also removed and placed into 1 ml of chilled pbs . the organs were then homogenized using a mechanical homogenizer and , along with the blood , were kept on ice until further use . each mouse was sacrificed by neck dislocation . the organs were then homogenized using a mechanical homogenizer and along with the blood , were kept on ice until further use . all animal experiments were done in accordance to french national ethics regulations . prior to the mouse preparation , a glass bottom black 96 well plate was altered so that the base of the plate could rest evenly onto a 10 cm petri dish . a piece of black paper that had twelve 1 . 5 mm diameter holes in a 3 × 4 orientation was placed in between the 96 well plate and an agar plate such that the pinholes were properly aligned with the wells of the 96 well plate . 5 μl aliquots of bacteria stock were then pipetted onto the agar directly aligned with the pinholes and the wells . after having time to settle , 2 μl aliquots of qd705 were placed onto the second and fourth columns of bacteria . the setup was then placed into the ivis 100 at 37 ° c . and bioluminescence confirmed . then , 50 μl aliquots of blood , homogenized liver , or homogenized lung from each mouse were appropriately distributed and the previously described image sequence acquired . female balb / c mice were anaesthetized with isoflurane ( 2 . 5 %). under anaesthetic , mice were injected intramuscularly in the left thigh to a depth of 3 mm with 25 - 50 μl of bacterial suspension with or without qds and imaged using the ivis 100 . a brightfield image was taken first and followed by bioluminescent images with the open , 610lp , and cy5 . 5 filters . images were analyzed using the living image ( v 3 . 1 , xenogen corp .) software . to demonstrate fuel in vivo , 2 % agarose pearls consisting of an rt57 - based core layered by agarose or a mixture of agarose and qd705 were constructed . briefly , to create an individual “ pearl ”, 12 . 5 μl of rt57 stock was mixed with 12 . 5 μl warm 4 % agarose and pipetted onto parafilm . after the 25 μl pearl core was allowed to cool , a mixture of either 5 μl of ps or 5 μl qd705 stock and 7 . 5 μl of 5 % agarose was pipetted onto the pearl core , forming the control and fuel pearls , respectively . after construction of the pearls , three female six - week old balb / c mice were chemically anesthetized using ketamine / xylazine . the hind limbs , both the dorsal and ventral sides , of all three mice were then shaved using an electric razor . a small incision was placed on the interior of both hind limbs , allowing for the subcutaneous placement of either the control ( rt57 ) or fuel ( rt57 and qd705 ) pearl . the mice were then placed into the ivis 100 and the luminescence observed from the ventral side for both the open and qd705 filter sets . the mice were then rotated and the luminescence observed from the dorsal side for both filter sets . a normalized uv / vis absorbance plot of congo red ( cr ) overlaid with the bioluminescence emission spectrum of the rt57 and the excitation / emission spectrum of the qd705 can be seen in fig1 a . as is shown , the excitation spectrum of the qd705 greatly overlaps the bioluminescent emission , while the fluorescence emission of the qd705 was found to be centered at 703 nm . in order to acquire a useful absorbance spectrum , the blood was diluted 300 times in sterile h 2 o , while the liver and the lung were diluted 200 times each , also in sterile h 2 o ( fig1 b ). as can be seen from fig1 a and 1b , the emission of the qd705 is located in a region of minimal absorption and scatter by the blood , liver , and lung while the bioluminescent emission of the rt57 is greatly perturbed by the scattering / absorbing agents . the locations of these emission maxima greatly illustrate the benefit of red - shifting the emitted photons . to determine if bioluminescent e . coli could excite qd705 without the need of any coupling chemistry or binding , solutions of rt57 and qd705 were distributed alone or mixed in separate tubes and the resulting luminescence production compared to three controls ( rt57 alone , qd705 alone , and ps ) under two different emission filter sets ( open and cy5 . 5 ). as can be seen from fig2 , both the rt57 and the rt57 + qd705 emit photons in the presence of the open filter . as expected , no luminescence was observed from bioluminescent controls ( qd705 or ps alone ; columns 1 and 3 , rows 1 and 2 ). in the presence of rt57 we observed comparable robust bioluminescent signal in the absence of emission filters ( columns 2 and 4 , row 1 ), with bacteria alone ( column 2 , row 1 ) and with rt57 + qd705 ( column 4 , row 1 ). however , by stark contrast when observed through the cy5 . 5 emission filter , we observed some ten - fold more signal from rt57 + qd705 ( column 4 , row 2 ) compared with luminescent bacteria alone ( column 2 , row 2 ), suggesting that the presence of qd705 had caused a shift in the wavelength of the emitted light , such that part of it now passed through a deep red emission filter . no luminescence was observed from the controls . this strongly suggests that bioluminescent bacteria alone are able to excite qd705 . a normalized bioluminescence emission spectrum of the rt57 and the excitation / emission spectrum of the qd705 are shown ( fig1 ). the excitation spectrum of the qd705 overlaps with the peak emission of rt57 bioluminescence while the fluorescence emission of the qd705 was centered , as expected , at 705 nm . in view of the spectral overlap and the results presented here , rt57 bioluminescence alone is sufficient to excite qd705 . a simple model mimicking the optical absorption of mouse blood , liver , and lungs was developed in order to demonstrate the importance of red shifting of the bioluminescent photons via trivial excitation . the common pigment congo red ( cr ) was found to have an absorption spectrum that , similar to the mouse blood , liver , and lungs , overlapped with the rt57 . the cr also displayed very little absorbance at 705 nm . the effect of the absorber , cragar , on the detectable photons was observed by stacking plates of agar and cragar above aliquots of the rt57 and rt57 + qd705 under two different conditions ( fig3 ). as described previously , three consecutive 5 minute acquisitions were acquired using a different filter set for two different conditions . condition 1 included the use of four standard agar plates while condition 2 replaced the central two agar plates with cragar plates ( fig3 a and 3b ). growth experiments were repeated in triplicate for each condition , and were observed using the ivis 100 . fig4 a shows the increase in total photon flux for condition 2 over time while fig4 b shows a typical bioluminescent image acquired at the end of a growth experiment for condition 2 . as can be seen , column 2 ( rt57 + qd705 ) is significantly brighter than the other columns . this difference can be more clearly observed in fig4 c . here , the total photon flux for columns 2 , 3 , and 4 were normalized to column 1 ( rt57 only ). a significant increase in the total photon flux is observed for column 2 , a small increase for column 3 , and essentially no increase in column 4 . as is seen in table 1 , there is an increase in the photon flux for column 2 in both conditions under the open filter set . a similar increase is also observed for column 3 in condition 1 , while a smaller increase is observed for condition 2 . this can be explained due to the presence of the cragar plates within condition 2 . the cragar plate situated between plate 1 and plate 3 decreases the number of rt57 photons available to excite the qd705 that lie on plate 3 . this is important because this effect suggests that the qd705 must be optically available to the rt57 in order to have the shift in photons occur . further evidence of this is also seen when column 4 is compared to column 1 for condition 2 . here , the ratio between the columns is centered around 1 , indicating that there is no enhancement when two plates of cragar are present . yet , for condition 1 , a slight enhancement is observed even with two plates of agar between the rt57 and the qd705 ( column 4 ). thus , without the absorber , there is no specificity to the excitation of the qd705 . the bacteria can be a substantial distance away . this is not desired when observing the bacterial evolution within an animal . under each condition and for each filter set , the maximum enhancement is observed for column 2 ( rt57 + qd705 ). the increased enhancement observed for both the 610lp and cy5 . 5 filter sets verifies the red - shift of the bioluminescent photons due to the presence of qd705 . however , when looking at the ratio of improvement from table 1 , one must not assume that the cy5 . 5 filter set is ideal because far fewer photons are actually detected due to the band pass . this filter is much more specific for the emission of the qd705 . while the 610lp allows far more photons to reach the ccd than the cy5 . 5 , it is still less than the open . thus , while the ratio of improvement is smaller , the number of photons detected is far greater . with the open filter set one achieves an increased sensitivity , acquiring the emitted photons from the qd705 and any unabsorbed and unscattered rt57 , while the use of the 610lp or the cy5 . 5 allows for an increased specificity to the qd705 . in a further set of experiments an aliquote of bioluminescent e . coli ( not visible : covered by a piece of black paper ) was placed between two cuvettes filled with either qd705 ( left ) or water ( right ) at increasing distances and the resulting luminescence observed under either the open or qd705 specific filter sets . as is observed under both filter sets , the luminescence of the qd705 decreases as a function of distance while no luminescence is observed from the water alone . the results are shown in fig5 a . these results illustrate that ( 1 ) in the absence of any quencher the fuel effect can occur over substantial distances and ( 2 ) that the fuel effect occurs by a light radiation process since there is no physical connection between the bioluminescent source and the fluorescent reporter . normalized luminescent intensities were calculated as a function of distance . the distance dependence of the fuel effect was repeated in triplicate using three different bacterial cultures . the resulting luminescence for the qd705 filter set were normalized to the most intense value , which occurred at a distance of 1 cm ( top ). as can be seen in fig5 b , the variance in the normalized intensities was quite insignificant . a polynomial curve was fitted to the luminescent intensity with significant agreement . multiple experimental conditions were established using two quartz tandem cuvettes separated by a piece of black paper . these conditions are shown schematically in fig7 , where in ps : physiological saline ; qd705 : qd705 solution ; rt57 : bioluminescent e . coli ; cr : congo red . a small window was cut into the paper in order to allow the bioluminescent photons to pass . the paper also provided a physical separation between the two cuvettes ensuring that no physical contact could occur between the qd705 and the rt57 . for each condition the luminescence intensity was observed under both the rt57 - and the qd705 - specific filter sets ( noted as 480 and qd705 respectively ), with each condition performed in triplicate . as can be seen , in the absence of qd705 ( condition control ), very few red photons were observed . however , a nearly 8 - fold increase in the red photon production was observed by simple addition of the qd705 to the optical path ( condition 1 ). in the presence of an absorber , cr ( condition 2 ), this increase remains the same , illustrating the powerful contrast enhancement due to the fuel effect in the presence of an absorber . further , when the absorber is placed between the bioluminescent source and the qd705 ( condition 3 ), the total photon production is reduced dramatically and the red photon production is similar to the control , indicating that the fuel effect is no longer occurring . this also highlights the specificity of fuel inasmuch as the fpp - l and fpp - u must be in close proximity in the presence of an absorber , but not necessarily in molecular proximity . by way of positive control , similar values were observed in the absence of qd705 , and the presence of cr ( condition 4 ), verifying that the loss of the fuel effect in condition 3 was due to the blue light absorbance of cr between the bacteria and the qd . before injecting mice with qds and bacteria , in triplicate from three different mice , mwb ( mouse whole blood ), homogenized liver and homogenized lung were used in order to simulate in vivo conditions . here , an agar plate with rt57 and rt57 + qd705 was prepared as previously described . a piece of black paper containing a pinhole was placed over an agar plate such that the pinhole was properly aligned with the aliquots of rt57 and rt57 + qd705 . finally , a black 96 well plate was placed on top of the black paper and agar plate . as can be seen within fig8 and table 2 , in the presence of mwb under the open filter , the rt57 + qd705 had an increase of nearly 4 times the total photon flux compared to the bacteria alone . however , a minimal increase in the total photon flux was observed for the liver and lungs . by contrast , the ratio was dramatically increased when using the cy5 . 5 filter verifying the qd705 excitation resulting in a substantial increase in red photon production . the results of this in vitro experiment strongly suggest that the presence of the qd705 red shifts the rt57 photons away from the absorption maxima of mwb thus increasing the total number of detectable photons . in order to demonstrate the capabilities of this technique , an in vivo proof of principle experiment was performed . qd705 and a bacterial suspension were sequentially injected into the thigh of a mouse under anesthetic . a second mouse was injected with bacteria alone and used as a control for the standard bioluminescence production . the bioluminescence productivity of each mouse was collected simultaneously under the three different filter sets ( fig9 ). as can be seen , an increase of the measured bioluminescence was observed for the qd705 injected mouse under each filter set . table 3 displays the significant shift in the detected photons when the qd705 are present . as can be seen from table 3 , only 25 % of the detected bioluminescent photons are longer than 610 nm for the bioluminescent bacteria alone . even more notable is that less than 10 % of the bioluminescent photons occur within the cy5 . 5 filter set . there is a dramatic difference when the qd705 were sequentially - injected with the rt57 . here , nearly 70 % of the detected photons are above 610 nm and 60 % occur within the cy5 . 5 filter set ( 695 - 770 nm ). also , when the improvement in detectable photons is calculated , a similar increase in the number of photons detected is observed for all three filter sets for the in vivo ( table 3 ) and in vitro ( table 1 ) datasets when qd705 are present . as rt57 luminescence caused qd705 emission under conditions in solution , where no covalent chemistry had been applied , this suggested that the mechanism of the detected phenomenon was not explained by bret ( a characteristically non - radiative ) mechanism constrained by the criterion of intimate molecular proximity . rather it raised the possibility that a radiative excitation - emission was responsible . to test this idea we next examined the ability of rt57 luminescence to excite aliquots of qd705 at macroscopic distances . in a series of experiments , we placed 5 μl stock rt57 onto the center of petri dishes . aliquots ( 2 μl ) of qd705 were then placed onto the petri dish , at increasing radial distances outward from the center , increasing at 5 mm increments to a total distance of 2 cm ( i . e . distance between rt57 and qd705 , center to center ; fig6 a ). the resulting luminescence was then observed for 300 s under the cy5 . 5 filter set only due to its specificity to the qd705 emission , and the qd705 location verified using fluorescence imaging ( fig6 b ). as can be seen the intensity of the subsequent qd705 emission decreased as a function of distance from the bioluminescent rt57 . however , the emission of the qd705 was readily detected up to a distance of 2 cm ( fig6 c ). bioluminescent e . coli bacteria suspended in a 50 μl bead of solidified 2 % agarose were subcutaneously implanted into the inner left thigh of a balb / c mouse . another 50 μl bead of bacteria in agarose was prepared and coated with a layer of 10 μl quantum dots having an emission wavelength in the red at 705 nm . this second bead was subcutaneously implanted into the same mouse &# 39 ; s inner right thigh . when in the presence of the bacteria , the quantum dots are excited and shift the bioluminescent light from a wavelength of 480 nm to 705 nm . the 480 nm luminescence of the bacteria is visible from both legs without a filter in place ( fig1 ) and the intensities from both legs are nearly equivalent . when a cy5 . 5 filter is applied ( 695 - 770 nm ), the light from the bacteria is blocked from view and only the fluorescence from the excited quantum dots can be seen from the right thigh ( fig1 ). the skin of the mouse is quite thin and readily traversable by light . however , when the mouse is turned over , emissions from the bacteria and quantum dots must cross the highly light - absorbing and scattering musculature of the leg before reaching the detector . unlike the blue light from the bacteria , red light is not as susceptible to absorption by tissue chromophores like hemoglobin , oxyhemoglobin , melanin , lipids , and water . the shifted light from the quantum dot - containing bead in the right thigh is nearly four times more intense than the light coming from the bead with only bacteria in the left thigh when no filter is in place ( fig1 ). when the cy5 . 5 filter is applied , the emission from the right leg is more than twenty - two times as great as that from the left leg ( fig1 ). the inventors have therefore shown that mixed in suspension bioluminescent bacteria are capable of exciting qds due to the significant spectral overlap between the bioluminescent emission peak , with the broad absorption spectrum of the qd705 , whereby the phenomenon is evidenced by the paradoxical red - shift of otherwise characteristically blue bacterial bioluminescence . in as much as the same effect is qualitatively to be expected if this system were to be engineered so as to allow bret to occur , this is certainly not the case under the conditions we described herein for the following reasons . first , the phenomenon occurs in suspension , in the absence of covalent chemistries , making it unlikely that the photonic moieties come into sufficiently close molecular proximity to achieve bret . second , the phenomenon is efficiently reproduced under conditions where moieties are physically separated by macroscopic distances , more characteristic of radiative excitation - emission . the inventors have demonstrated that the fuel effect can occur over distances of millimeters , inordinately further than could be achieved by any inter - molecular energy transfer process . it is interesting therefore that the resulting red - shift of the photon emission is strongly propagated through tissue prepared in vitro . in this case , the poor propagation of light from bacteria alone is due to a biophotonic behavior characteristic of blue light , i . e . high scatter and absorbance in tissue . by contrast , the inventors have shown that qd - based fuel yields red luminescent photons through a cy5 . 5 filter and have shown that it is this property that yields an order of magnitude enhancement of light detection in the presence of in vitro tissue since the red - shifted luminescence experiences minimal scatter and absorption compared to blue - green light . a schematic representation of fuel is shown in fig1 . the properties of fuel therefore have the potential to be particularly advantageous for applications and for experiments and techniques performed in vivo such as bacterial dissemination or host - pathogen interactions and response . perhaps surprisingly , it is clear that the presence of an optical absorber such as blood or tissue actually increases the specificity of fuel inasmuch as the bioluminescent bacteria must be close to the qds , but not necessarily within the molecular distance that would equate to bret . the fuel red - shifted photons are more able to pass through the blood and tissues , with the most significant enhancement in mwb . based upon the phenomenon and properties reported herein , fuel has value particular application for experiments and techniques performed in vivo . the inventors have demonstrated the ability of bioluminescent e . coli to excite qds at substantial distances , creating a red - shift in the detected photons through a process which they have termed fuel . the photons are shifted away from the highly absorbing regions of hemoglobin ( in its various forms ) and tissues , to the optically transparent region of 700 - 900 nm . a significant increase in the number of detectable photons is observed when qd705 are present under ex vivo conditions . further , the inventors have shown fuel to be distinct from bret in as much as the working distances shown here are much greater ( μm - cm ) than accepted bret conditions (& lt ; 10 nm ). finally , the inventors have achieved a shift in the emitted photons without the use of any coupling chemistries . fuel could be used as a complimentary technique to bret . using bret , one is able to observe specific protein interactions , which is a level of resolution that is not readily necessary for whole animal bioluminescence imaging . however , fuel has a spatial resolution more on the scale of individual organs , which is more relevant to whole animal bli . as such , the two techniques , while sharing similar principles , have vastly different applications and scales of operation . furthermore , we suggest that the fuel effect could be applied to in vivo settings . 1 . contag , c . h . ; ross , b . d ., it &# 39 ; s not just about anatomy : in vivo bioluminescence imaging as an eyepiece into biology . j magn reson imaging 2002 , 16 ( 4 ), 378 - 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