Neutrophil Elastase Activity Imaging: Recent Approaches in the Design and Applications of Activity-Based Probes and Substrate-Based Probes

Abstract : The last few decades of protease research has con rmed that a number of important biological processes are strictly dependent on proteolysis. Neutrophil elastase (NE) is a critical protease in immune response and host defense mechanisms in both physiological and disease-associated conditions. Particularly, NE has been identi ed as a promising biomarker for early diagnosis of lung in ammation. Recent studies have shown an increasing interest in developing methods for NE activity imaging both in vitro and in vivo. Unlike anatomical imaging modalities, functional molecular imaging, including enzymatic activities, enables disease detection at a very early stage and thus constitutes a much more accurate approach. When combined with advanced imaging technologies, opportunities arise for measuring imbalanced proteolytic activities with unprecedented details. Such technologies consist in building the highest resolved and sensitive instruments as well as the most speci c probes based either on peptide substrates or on covalent inhibitors. is review outlines strengths and weaknesses of these technologies and discuss their applications to investigate NE activity as biomarker of pulmonary in ammatory diseases by imaging.