title: Water Dispersible and Biocompatible Porphyrin-Based Nanospheres for Biophotonics Applications: A Novel Surfactant and Polyelectrolyte-Based Fabrication Strategy for Modifying Hydrophobic Porphyrins.
abstract: The hydrophobility of most porphyrin and porphyrin derivatives has limited their applications in medicine and biology. Herein, we developed a novel and general strategy for the design of porphyrin nanospheres with good biocompatibility and water dispersibility for biological applications using hydrophobic porphyrins. In order to display the generality of the method, we used two hydrophobic porphyrin isomers as starting material which have different structures confirmed by an X-ray technique. The porphyrin nanospheres were fabricated through two main steps. First, the uniform porphyrin nanospheres stabilized by surfactant were prepared by an interfacially driven microemulsion method, and then the layer-by-layer method was used for the synthesis of polyelectrolyte-coated porphyrin nanospheres to reduce the toxicity of the surfactant as well as improve the biocompatibility of the nanospheres. The newly fabricated porphyrin nanospheres were characterized by TEM techniques, the electronic absorption spectra, photoluminescence emission spectra, dynamic light scattering, and cytotoxicity examination. The resulting nanospheres demonstrated good biocompatibility, excellent water dispersibility and low toxicity. In order to show their application in biophotonics, these porphyrin nanospheres were successfully applied in targeted living cancer cell imaging. The results showed an effective method had been explored to prepare water dispersible and highly stable porphyrin nanomaterial for biophotonics applications using hydrophobic porphyrin. The approach we reported shows obvious flexibility because the surfactants and polyelectrolytes can be optionally selected in accordance with the characteristics of the hydrophobic material. This strategy will expand the applications of hydrophobic porphyrins owning excellent properties in medicine and biology.
authors: Advanced Photonics Center, Southeast University , Nanjing 210096, PR China.|Key Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry in Universities of Shandong, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Jining University , Qufu, 273155, PR China.
authors: Ning
authors: N
authors: Sheng
authors: Advanced Photonics Center, Southeast University , Nanjing 210096, PR China.
authors: Shenfei
authors: S
authors: Zong
authors: Beijing Key Laboratory for Science and Application of Functional Molecular and Crystalline Materials, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing , Beijing 100083, PR China.
authors: Wei
authors: W
authors: Cao
authors: Beijing Key Laboratory for Science and Application of Functional Molecular and Crystalline Materials, Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology Beijing , Beijing 100083, PR China.
authors: Jianzhuang
authors: J
authors: Jiang
authors: Advanced Photonics Center, Southeast University , Nanjing 210096, PR China.
authors: Zhuyuan
authors: Z
authors: Wang
authors: Advanced Photonics Center, Southeast University , Nanjing 210096, PR China.
authors: Yiping
authors: Y
authors: Cui
mesh_terms: D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D000067493:Dynamic Light Scattering; D006801:Humans; D057927:Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D054118:Nanospheres / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D011095:Polyethylenes / Q000737:chemistry; D011166:Porphyrins / Q000737:chemistry*; D000644:Quaternary Ammonium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry; D013501:Surface-Active Agents / Q000737:chemistry; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D011095:Polyethylenes; D011166:Porphyrins; D000644:Quaternary Ammonium Compounds; D013501:Surface-Active Agents; D014867:Water; C041004:poly-N,N-dimethyl-N,N-diallylammonium chloride
keywords: biophotonics applications; hydrophobic porphyrin; layer-by-layer method; microemulsion method; polyelectrolyte; surfactant