Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction, Institute of Molecular Functional Materials, Division of Life Science and State Key Laboratory of Molecular Neuroscience, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, 999077, China.
State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, Ministry of Education, and College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, 300071, China.
Nat Commun. 2019 Feb 15;10(1):768. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-08722-z.
The exciting applications of molecular motion are still limited and are in urgent pursuit, although some fascinating concepts such as molecular motors and molecular machines have been proposed for years. Utilizing molecular motion in a nanoplatform for practical application has been scarcely explored due to some unconquered challenges such as how to achieve effective molecular motion in the aggregate state within nanoparticles. Here, we introduce a class of near infrared-absorbing organic molecules with intramolecular motion-induced photothermy inside nanoparticles, which enables most absorbed light energy to dissipate as heat. Such a property makes the nanoparticles a superior photoacoustic imaging agent compared to widely used methylene blue and semiconducting polymer nanoparticles and allow them for high-contrast photoacoustic imaging of tumours in live mice. This study not only provides a strategy for developing advanced photothermal/photoacoustic imaging nanoagents, but also enables molecular motion in a nanoplatform to find a way for practical application.
尽管多年来已经提出了一些迷人的概念，如分子马达和分子机器，但分子运动的令人兴奋的应用仍然受到限制，并且迫切需要进一步研究。由于一些尚未克服的挑战，如如何在纳米颗粒内的聚集态中实现有效的分子运动，因此，在纳米平台中利用分子运动进行实际应用的研究还很少。在这里，我们介绍了一类具有分子内运动诱导光热的近红外吸收有机分子，其可以使大部分吸收的光能转化为热能。这种特性使得纳米颗粒成为比广泛使用的亚甲蓝和半导体聚合物纳米颗粒更好的光声成像造影剂，并允许它们对活体小鼠中的肿瘤进行高对比度的光声成像。这项研究不仅为开发先进的光热/光声成像纳米试剂提供了一种策略，而且还使得纳米平台中的分子运动找到了一种实际应用的途径。
