title: Nile Red Derivative-Modified Nanostructure for Upconversion Luminescence Sensing and Intracellular Detection of Fe(3+) and MR Imaging.
abstract: Iron ion (Fe(3+)) which is the physiologically most abundant and versatile transition metal in biological systems, has been closely related to many certain cancers, metabolism, and dysfunction of organs, such as the liver, heart, and pancreas. In this Research Article, a novel Nile red derivative (NRD) fluorescent probe was synthesized and, in conjunction with polymer-modified core-shell upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), demonstrated in the detection of Fe(3+) ion with high sensitivity and selectivity. The core-shell UCNPs were surface modified using a synthesized PEGylated amphiphilic polymer (C18PMH-mPEG), and the resulting mPEG modified core-shell UCNPs (mPEG-UCNPs) show good water solubility. The overall Fe(3+)-responsive upconversion luminescence nanostructure was fabricated by linking the NRD to the mPEG-UCNPs, denoted as mPEG-UCNPs-NRD. In the nanostructure, the core-shell UCNPs, NaYF4:Yb,Er,Tm@NaGdF4, serve as the energy donor while the Fe(3+)-responsive NRD as the energy acceptor, which leads to efficient luminescence resonance energy transfer (LRET). The mPEG-UCNPs-NRD nanostructure shows high selectivity and sensitivity for detecting Fe(3+) in water. In addition, benefited from the good biocompatibility, the nanostructure was successfully applied for detecting Fe(3+) in living cells based on upconversion luminescence (UCL) from the UCNPs. Furthermore, the doped Gd(3+) ion in the UCNPs endows the mPEG-UCNPs-NRD nanostructure with effective T1 signal enhancement, making it a potential magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent. This work demonstrates a simple yet powerful strategy to combine metal ion sensing with multimodal bioimaging based on upconversion luminescence for biomedical applications.
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Nano Science and Technology, and School of Material Science and Engineering, Shanghai University , Shanghai 200444, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ruoyan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Nano Science and Technology, and School of Material Science and Engineering, Shanghai University , Shanghai 200444, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zuwu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Nano Science and Technology, and School of Material Science and Engineering, Shanghai University , Shanghai 200444, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lining
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California , Santa Cruz, California 95064, United States.
authors.forename: Jin Z
authors.initials: JZ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Nano Science and Technology, and School of Material Science and Engineering, Shanghai University , Shanghai 200444, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jinliang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Nano Science and Technology, and School of Material Science and Engineering, Shanghai University , Shanghai 200444, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiaoqian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Nano Science and Technology, and School of Material Science and Engineering, Shanghai University , Shanghai 200444, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Liyi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shi
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D016923:Cell Death; D002470:Cell Survival; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D042541:Intracellular Space / Q000378:metabolism*; D007501:Iron / Q000032:analysis*; D049449:Luminescence; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010078:Oxazines / Q000737:chemistry*; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet
chemical_list: D010078:Oxazines; D007501:Iron; C044808:nile red
keywords: Bioimaging; Fe3+ sensing; MR imaging; Nile red derivative (NRD); Upconversion luminescence nanostructure