Detection of a prostate cancer cell line using a bioluminescent affiprobe: An attempt to develop a new molecular probe for ex vivo studies

Molecular probes have become an important tool to decipher cell and molecular events, as well as contributing to clinical diagnosis. In this study, we report on a novel bioluminescence affiprobe and evaluate its functionality by monitoring HER2 expression in the prostate cancer cells. The proposed bioluminescence affiprobe consists of a binding domain, an HER2 specific affibody molecule and a bioluminescent domain, recombinant Renilla luciferase. The experiments indicate that bioluminescence affiprobe can serve as a reliable and user-friendly probe for the detection of human HER2 positive prostate cells as well as ex vivo based detection of HER2-positive human prostate cancer specimens using luminometeric-based assays. •A novel affiprobe, named C-SRLuc8–Z2891, was obtained by fusion of the N-terminal of Z2891 to the C-terminal of C-RLuc8.•C-SRLuc8–Z2891 was expressed, purified and applied for monitoring HER2 expression in prostate cancer cell lines as well as prostate tumor specimens.•C-SRLuc8–Z2891 is a reliable and user-friendly probe for the detection of human HER2 positive prostate cells using luminometeric-based assays.