Department of Biomedical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China.
Small. 2017 Nov;13(41). doi: 10.1002/smll.201702128. Epub 2017 Sep 12.
Aggregation induced emission (AIE) has attracted considerable interest for the development of fluorescence probes. However, controlling the bioconjugation and cellular labeling of AIE dots is a challenging problem. Here, this study reports a general approach for preparing small and bioconjugated AIE dots for specific labeling of cellular targets. The strategy is based on the synthesis of oxetane-substituted AIEgens to generate compact and ultrastable AIE dots via photo-crosslinking. A small amount of polymer enriched with oxetane groups is cocondensed with most of the AIEgens to functionalize the nanodot surface for subsequent streptavidin bioconjugation. Due to their small sizes, good stability, and surface functionalization, the cell-surface markers and subcellular structures are specifically labeled by the AIE dot bioconjugates. Remarkably, stimulated emission depletion imaging with AIE dots is achieved for the first time, and the spatial resolution is significantly enhanced to ≈95 nm. This study provides a general approach for small functional molecules for preparing small sized and ultrastable nanodots.
聚集诱导发光 (AIE) 在荧光探针的发展中引起了相当大的兴趣。然而，控制 AIE 点的生物缀合和细胞标记是一个具有挑战性的问题。在这项研究中，报道了一种用于制备用于特定细胞靶标标记的小尺寸和生物缀合的 AIE 点的通用方法。该策略基于合成恶唑烷取代的 AIEgen，通过光交联生成紧凑且超稳定的 AIE 点。少量富含恶唑烷基团的聚合物与大部分 AIEgen 共聚，以功能化纳米点表面，用于随后的链霉亲和素生物缀合。由于其尺寸小、稳定性好和表面功能化，AIE 点生物缀合物可以特异性标记细胞表面标志物和亚细胞结构。值得注意的是，首次实现了 AIE 点的受激发射损耗成像，空间分辨率显著提高到 ≈95nm。这项研究为制备小尺寸和超稳定纳米点的小分子提供了一种通用方法。
