Developments and Applications of Bioluminescent and Chemiluminescent Sensors and Probes

Dear Сolleagues,

With this letter, we cordially invite you to submit research/review papers to the upcoming Special Issue titled “Developments and Applications of Bioluminescent and Chemiluminescent  Sensors and Probes”, which is devoted to the splendid phenomenona of bioluminescence and chemiluminescence in terms of their analytical applications. In this context, the pertinent proteins that are involved in the occurrence of bioluminescence, their biospecific derivatives, the development of sensors on their base, and novel assays using these proteins merit prime attention. Nevertheless, the general scope of the forthcoming Issue is not limited to protein applications and encompasses all of the salient features of bioluminescence and chemiluminescence processes that are suitable for developing efficient biosensors and analytical tools. Complementary to bioluminescence methods, appropriate chemiluminescence techniques constitute another integral part of the Issue. As vital oxidative processes are accompanied by the excited-state generation followed by light emission, papers that are devoted to examining the effects of oxygen metabolism mediators (diverse oxidants and bioantioxidants) on the chemiluminescence of an oxidative nature are considered to be important contributions to this Special Issue. These contributions are expected to refer to the mechanistic and kinetic fundamentals of chemiluminescence assays and sensors for biologically important reactive oxygen and nitrogen species as well as for appropriate bioantioxidants, the validation of the considered assays, and relevant illustrative examples of their use.

It is known that centuries ago, the cold light of living organisms and inanimate objects evoked admiration and superstitious horror in equal measure. However, by the middle of the 20th century, chemiluminescent reactions (CL) received a fundamental baseand we determined how to use them as an analytical tool. Bioluminescent reactions (BL), due to which the glow of living organisms can be observed, are of particular attention and interest. In fact, bioluminescence is a special type of chemiluminescent reaction that is catalyzed by specific enzymes, luciferases. In addition to catalysis, the protein globule isolates the excited product from medium and prevents the dissipation of excitation energy dissipation as heat by this significantly increasing the reaction quantum yield. This motivates practical interest in studying bioluminescence. The search for novel luciferases and their substrates (luciferins) is constantly being carried out,as is the directed modification of the already-known ones in order to obtain derivatives with new useful properties. By now, chemiluminescence and bioluminescence have become a powerful analytical tool based on the highly sensitive registration of an optical signal, the scale of which can hardly be overestimated. The accumulated knowledge and experimental arsenal allow us to promptly respond to the topical challenges of modern medicine and biotechnology and to say nothing of the CL- and BL-based analytical systems that are widely used in experimental biology. We hope that your latest experimental research results as well as comprehensive reviews in related fields will be valuable contributions to this Special Issue.

Prof. Dr. Liudmila A Frank
Prof. Dr. Aleksei V. Trofimov
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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