Zhang Lutong, Li Jisen, Zhang Yifan, Dai Wenbo, Zhang Yufan, Gao Xue, Liu Miaochang, Wu Huayue, Huang Xiaobo, Lei Yunxiang, Ding Dan
School of Chemistry and Materials Engineering, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, P. R. China.
Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, State Key Laboratory of Medicinal Chemical Biology, MOE Key Laboratory of Bioactive Materials, and College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin, P.R. China.
Nat Commun. 2025 Apr 28;16(1):3970. doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-59367-0.
Organic phosphorescence materials offer significant advantages for bioimaging applications. However, most of these materials are excited exclusively by ultraviolet (UV) light, which poses risks to living organisms. Herein, six donor-acceptor-type compounds incorporating triazine groups are designed as guests within doped systems. White-light excitable phosphorescent guests enable doped materials to show efficient afterglow under white-light excitation. By leveraging the ability of white-light to penetrate biological tissues, a bioimaging mode in which the materials are first concentrated within the organism and then excited was developed, yielding superior imaging effects compared with the traditional method in which materials are first excited and then concentrated. Furthermore, these materials are applied in imaging diagnosis of atherosclerosis plaques (male Apoe mice) and intestinal diseases (female BALB/c-nude mice), as well as in navigation for in situ liver tumor surgery (female BALB/c-nude mice), achieving excellent imaging outcomes. This work addresses the limitations of phosphorescent materials that rely on UV-light, significantly enhancing their potential for practical applications in clinical imaging.
有机磷光材料在生物成像应用中具有显著优势。然而，这些材料大多仅由紫外（UV）光激发，这对生物体构成风险。在此，设计了六种含三嗪基团的供体-受体型化合物作为掺杂体系中的客体。白光可激发的磷光客体使掺杂材料在白光激发下表现出高效余辉。通过利用白光穿透生物组织的能力，开发了一种材料先在生物体内富集然后激发的生物成像模式，与材料先激发然后富集的传统方法相比，产生了卓越的成像效果。此外，这些材料应用于动脉粥样硬化斑块（雄性Apoe小鼠）和肠道疾病（雌性BALB/c裸鼠）的成像诊断，以及原位肝肿瘤手术（雌性BALB/c裸鼠）的导航，取得了优异的成像结果。这项工作解决了依赖紫外光的磷光材料的局限性，显著增强了它们在临床成像中实际应用的潜力。
