Liu Cong, He Shan, Guo Xiao-Feng, Wang Hong
College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
College of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
Anal Chim Acta. 2025 May 22;1352:343916. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2025.343916. Epub 2025 Mar 8.
Lipid droplets (LDs) are vital intracellular organelles for lipid storage, closely associated with various metabolic disorders and cancers. Fluorescence imaging offers a powerful, non-invasive approach to study LDs in real time, but many existing probes suffer from non-specific staining and aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ), compromising their imaging specificity and contrast.
In this study, we synthesized a novel LD fluorescent probe TPC-AN that takes advantage of near-infrared emission, large Stokes shift, high lipophilicity, polarity response and aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics. TPC-AN effectively addresses issues of non-specific staining and ACQ commonly observed with traditional probes, enabling highly specific and high-contrast imaging of LDs. Utilizing TPC-AN, imaging of LDs in several kinds of cells was performed, and discrimination of cancerous and normal cells was achieved using dual-parameter through differences in LD fluorescence area and intensity.
This work provides a promising tool for studying LDs in diseases and offers a reliable method for cancer diagnosis, with excellent LD-specificity, low cytotoxicity, and dual-parameter imaging capabilities.
脂滴（LDs）是细胞内储存脂质的重要细胞器，与多种代谢紊乱和癌症密切相关。荧光成像提供了一种强大的、非侵入性的实时研究脂滴的方法，但许多现有的探针存在非特异性染色和聚集诱导猝灭（ACQ）问题，影响了它们的成像特异性和对比度。
在本研究中，我们合成了一种新型的脂滴荧光探针TPC-AN，它利用了近红外发射、大斯托克斯位移、高亲脂性、极性响应和聚集诱导发光（AIE）特性。TPC-AN有效地解决了传统探针常见的非特异性染色和ACQ问题，能够对脂滴进行高特异性和高对比度成像。利用TPC-AN对几种细胞中的脂滴进行成像，并通过脂滴荧光面积和强度的差异，采用双参数实现了癌细胞和正常细胞的区分。
这项工作为研究疾病中的脂滴提供了一种有前景的工具，并为癌症诊断提供了一种可靠的方法，具有出色的脂滴特异性、低细胞毒性和双参数成像能力。
