A brighter and more photostable, no-transfection, quantitative assay for monitoring autophagy in live  cells.

• No transfection assay eliminates need for transfection efficiency validation
• Brighter, more photostable dye specifically stains autophagic vesicles
• Negligible staining of lysosomes reduces background seen with other dyes
• Rapidly quantifies autophagy in native heterogeneous cell populations
• Facilitates high-throughput screening of activators and inhibitors of autophagy

The CYTO-ID® Autophagy detection kit 2.0 provides a rapid, specific, and quantitative approach for monitoring autophagy in live cells by fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, and microplate reader.

CYTO-ID® Autophagy Detection Kit 2.0 measures autophagic vacuoles and monitors autophagic flux in lysosomally inhibited live cells using a novel dye that selectively labels accumulated autophagic vacuoles. The dye has been optimized through the identification of titratable functional moieties that allow for minimal staining of lysosomes while exhibiting bright fluorescence upon incorporation into pre-autophagosomes, autophagosomes, and autolysosomes (autophagolysosomes). The assay offers a rapid and quantitative approach to monitoring autophagy in live cells without the need for cell transfection.Mechanism of ActionThe probe is a cationic amphiphilic tracer (CAT) dye that rapidly partitions into cells in a similar manner as drugs that induce phospholipidosis. Careful selection of titratable functional moieties on the dye prevents its accumulation within lysosomes, but enables labeling of vacuoles associated with the autophagy pathway.