Wang Youjuan, Guo Jing, Chen Muchao, Liao Shiyi, Xu Li, Chen Qian, Song Guosheng, Zhang Xiao-Bing
State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Bio-Sensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, China.
Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon-Based Functional Materials and Devices, Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Nat Biomed Eng. 2025 May;9(5):656-670. doi: 10.1038/s41551-024-01274-8. Epub 2024 Oct 29.
Low sensitivity, photobleaching, high-power excitation and long acquisition times constrain the utility of afterglow luminescence. Here we report the design and imaging performance of nanoparticles made of electron-rich trianthracene derivatives that, on excitation by room light at ultralow power (58 μW cm), emit afterglow luminescence at ~500 times those of commonly used organic afterglow nanoparticles. The nanoparticles' ultrabright afterglow allowed for deep-tissue imaging (up to 6 cm), for ultrafast afterglow imaging (at short acquisition times down to 0.01 s) of naturally behaving mice with negligible photobleaching, even after re-excitation for over 15 cycles, and for the accurate visualization of subcutaneous and orthotopic tumours and of plaque in carotid arteries. We also show that an afterglow nanoparticle that is activated only in the presence of granzyme B allowed for the tracking of granzyme-B activity in the context of therapeutic monitoring. The high sensitivity and negligible photobleaching of the organic afterglow nanoparticles offer advantages for real-time in vivo monitoring of physiopathological processes.
低灵敏度、光漂白、高功率激发和长采集时间限制了余辉发光的应用。在此，我们报告了由富电子三蒽衍生物制成的纳米颗粒的设计和成像性能，这些纳米颗粒在超低功率（58 μW/cm）的室内光激发下，发出的余辉发光强度约为常用有机余辉纳米颗粒的500倍。纳米颗粒的超亮余辉实现了深层组织成像（深度达6厘米）、对自然行为小鼠的超快余辉成像（采集时间短至0.01秒），且光漂白可忽略不计，即使在重新激发超过15个循环后也是如此，还能准确可视化皮下和原位肿瘤以及颈动脉斑块。我们还表明，一种仅在颗粒酶B存在时才被激活的余辉纳米颗粒能够在治疗监测的背景下追踪颗粒酶B的活性。有机余辉纳米颗粒的高灵敏度和可忽略不计的光漂白为体内生理病理过程的实时监测提供了优势。
