The results of this work have been published in the prestigious journal – American Chemical Society Materials Letters.
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi collaborated with the University of Cincinnati, USA to develop an efficient method to study the internal structure and functions of an important component of living cells. The IIT Mandi researchers have used metal nanoclusters in a method called Structured Illumination Microscopy to observe the nano dimensional features and functions of lysosomes and their interactions with another important cell organelle, mitochondria.
The results of this work have been published in the prestigious journal – American Chemical Society Materials Letters, in a paper co-authored by Professor Chayan K Nandi, School of Basic Sciences, IIT Mandi and his research scholar Mr Aditya Yadav from IIT Mandi, along with Dr Kangqiang Qiu, Dr Zhiqi Tian, Dr Ziyuan Guo, Dr Donglu Shi, and Dr Jiajie Diao from the University of Cincinnati, USA.
While explaining the need to develop new methods to see into these tiny structures, Professor Chayan K Nandi, IIT Mandi, said, “Lysosomes are about a micron in size, i.e., a thousandth of a millimetre, with its internal structure in the order of 200 nanometres (one-thousandth of a micron). The regular microscope cannot pick up the details of structures of this size.”
IIT Mandi researchers have used a technique called Structured Illumination Microscopy (SIM) to discern the internal structures of lysosomes. SIM is based on the excitation of the sample with a structured pattern of light and the detection of the interference patterns by Near-infrared spectroscopy.
While explaining the research, Mr Aditya Yadav, Research Scholar, IIT Mandi, said, “We modified these nanoclusters with a biocompatible protein called bovine serum albumin and used them to track the dynamics of the lysosomes in brain organoid. In particular, we studied the process by which lysosomes recycle damaged mitochondria inside cells.”
The protein-coated metal nanoclusters could be used to track lysosome activity for an extended period of time (more than 12 days), which provided ample opportunity to study the dynamics of fission, fusion, and kiss-and-run processes associated with the interactions between the ribosomes and mitochondria.
Furthermore, as expected, these nanoclusters did not have any photo-bleaching problems, and also were not influenced by the acidity of the medium, unlike organic dyes used for the purpose. Since these nanoclusters were small enough to enter the cells and even enter the sub-cellular structures such as the lysosome, they can be used to understand the functioning of these vital substructures of the cells.