Department of Chemistry, The Hong Kong Branch of Chinese National Engineering Research Center for Tissue Restoration and Reconstruction, Institute for Advanced Study, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Institute of Molecular Functional Materials, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China.
State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, College of Pharmacy, Nankai University, Haihe Education Park, Tianjin, China.
Nat Commun. 2021 Feb 11;12(1):960. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-21208-1.
Nitric oxide (NO) is an important signaling molecule overexpressed in many diseases, thus the development of NO-activatable probes is of vital significance for monitoring related diseases. However, sensitive photoacoustic (PA) probes for detecting NO-associated complicated diseases (e.g., encephalitis), have yet to be developed. Herein, we report a NO-activated PA probe for in vivo detection of encephalitis by tuning the molecular geometry and energy transformation processes. A strong donor-acceptor structure with increased conjugation can be obtained after NO treatment, along with the active intramolecular motion, significantly boosting "turn-on" near-infrared PA property. The molecular probe exhibits high specificity and sensitivity towards NO over interfering reactive species. The probe is capable of detecting and differentiating encephalitis in different severities with high spatiotemporal resolution. This work will inspire more insights into the development of high-performing activatable PA probes for advanced diagnosis by making full use of intramolecular motion and energy transformation processes.
一氧化氮（NO）是一种在许多疾病中过度表达的重要信号分子，因此开发可激活的 NO 探针对于监测相关疾病具有重要意义。然而，用于检测与 NO 相关的复杂疾病（如脑炎）的灵敏光声（PA）探针尚未开发出来。在此，我们通过调节分子几何形状和能量转换过程，报道了一种用于体内检测脑炎的 NO 激活型 PA 探针。NO 处理后可以获得具有增加的共轭的强供体-受体结构，以及活性的分子内运动，从而显著增强“开启”近红外 PA 性质。该分子探针对 NO 具有高度的特异性和灵敏度，而不受干扰的反应性物质的影响。该探针能够以高时空分辨率检测和区分不同严重程度的脑炎。这项工作将通过充分利用分子内运动和能量转换过程，为高性能可激活 PA 探针的开发提供更多见解，以实现先进的诊断。
