Construction of heteroaryl-bridged NIR AIEgens for specific imaging of lipid droplets and its application in photodynamic therapy.

As a kind of subcellular organelle, lipid droplets (LDs) play a critical role in the body's normal metabolism. LDs have gained increasing attention as a fluorescent photodynamic target site. Near-infrared (NIR) organic light-emitting luminescent materials, with aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active feature, preeminent LD-imaging ability, and effective reactive oxygen species (ROS) production property, have been widely used for photodynamic therapy (PDT) in diagnostic therapeutics, but its application remains challenging.

Tunable NIR AIE-active optical materials for lipid droplet imaging in typical model organisms and photodynamic therapy.

Near infrared (NIR) luminescent materials with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) features have attracted enormous attention in the areas of medical imaging and diagnostic therapeutics because of their low background fluorescence and strong tissue penetration. This study reports a series of easily synthesized AIEgen molecules that feature NIR emission. These molecules have a donor-donor-π-acceptor (D1-D2-π-A) structure with intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) character.

Fluorometric probe for the lipase level: Design, mechanism and biological imaging application.

To realize accurate regulation for fluorescent substrate of lipase, two series compounds (I, II) with similar structure were designed and synthesized. The flexible diphenylmethane was permitted I to go deep into the catalytic site of lipase, while rigid structure of 9H-fluoren makes itself difficult to approach the center. Series I could be effectively hydrolyzed by porcine pancreatic lipase (PPL), and the product emitted fluorescence based on aggregation-induced emission (AIE) mechanism, meanwhile different substituent groups (-Br, -Cl, -Ph, -H) on I induced the tunable hydrolysis rate.

Fabricating a fluorescence resonance energy transfer system with AIE molecular for sensitive detection of Cu(II) ions.

The aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens has exhibited strong potential in fabricating the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) system. In this paper one efficient FRET system was fabricated in aqueous solution based on an AIE molecular (T) and Nile Red (NiR) dyes: T acts as the energy donor and NiR acts as the energy acceptor with a ratio of 250:1. The energy-transfer efficiency from the donor to acceptor is 82.