4.8 Article

Ultralong purely organic aqueous phosphorescence supramolecular polymer for targeted tumor cell imaging

Journal

NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 11, Issue 1, Pages -

Publisher

NATURE RESEARCH
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18520-7

Keywords

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Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China [21672113, 21772099, 21861132001, 21971127]

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Purely organic room-temperature phosphorescence has attracted attention for bioimaging but can be quenched in aqueous systems. Here we report a water-soluble ultralong organic room-temperature phosphorescent supramolecular polymer by combining cucurbit[n]uril (CB[7], CB[8]) and hyaluronic acid (HA) as a tumor-targeting ligand conjugated to a 4-(4-bromophenyl)pyridin-1-ium bromide (BrBP) phosphor. The result shows that CB[7] mediated pseudorotaxane polymer CB[7]/HA-BrBP changes from small spherical aggregates to a linear array, whereas complexation with CB[8] results in biaxial pseudorotaxane polymer CB[8]/HA-BrBP which transforms to relatively large aggregates. Owing to the more stable 1:2 inclusion complex between CB[8] and BrBP and the multiple hydrogen bonds, this supramolecular polymer has ultralong purely organic RTP lifetime in water up to 4.33ms with a quantum yield of 7.58%. Benefiting from the targeting property of HA, this supramolecular polymer is successfully applied for cancer cell targeted phosphorescence imaging of mitochondria. Room-temperature phosphorescence has attracted attention for bioimaging, but quenching in aqueous systems is an issue. Here, the authors report on the synthesis of a water soluble organic phosphorescent polymer and demonstrate application is cancer cell targeting and imaging.

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