NIR-II pH Sensor with a FRET Adjustable Transition Point for In Situ Dynamic Tumor Microenvironment Visualization

Monitoring the pH in tumor lesions provides abundant physiological information. However, currently developed pH sensors only achieve sensitive detection in the settled response region around the pH transition point (pH(t)). To realize tumor pH monitoring with high sensitivity within a wider response region, reported here are serial pH(t) adjustable sensors (pTAS) that simply regulate the component ratio of second near-infrared (NIR-II) emission aza-BODIPY (NAB) donor and pH sensitive rhodamine-based pre-acceptor (NRh) in Forster resonance energy transfer system. Combining the pH response regions of pTAS, a twofold widened pH detection range (6.11-7.22) is obtained compared to the pH(t) settled sensor (6.38-6.94). With an adjustable pH(t), in vivo tumor pH increase and decrease processes could be dynamically visualized through dual-channel ratiometric bioimaging within the NIR-II window, with a coefficient of variation under 1 % compared to the standard pH meter.

Automated summary

The newly developed pTAS sensors can achieve high sensitivity tumor pH monitoring within a wider response region, extending the pH detection range. Through dual-channel ratiometric bioimaging, the dynamic changes in tumor pH can be visualized in vivo.