title: Bioorthogonal Turn-On Probe Based on Aggregation-Induced Emission Characteristics for Cancer Cell Imaging and Ablation.
abstract: Bioorthogonal turn-on probes have been widely utilized in visualizing various biological processes. Most of the currently available bioorthogonal turn-on probes are blue or green emissive fluorophores with azide or tetrazine as functional groups. Herein, we present an alternative strategy of designing bioorthogonal turn-on probes based on red-emissive fluorogens with aggregation-induced emission characteristics (AIEgens). The probe is water soluble and non-fluorescent due to the dissipation of energy through free molecular motion of the AIEgen, but the fluorescence is immediately turned on upon click reaction with azide-functionalized glycans on cancer cell surface. The fluorescence turn-on is ascribed to the restriction of molecular motion of AIEgen, which populates the radiative decay channel. Moreover, the AIEgen can generate reactive oxygen species (ROS) upon visible light (λ=400-700 nm) irradiation, demonstrating its dual role as an imaging and phototherapeutic agent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
authors.forename: Youyong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
authors.forename: Shidang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
authors.forename: Xiamin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore, 117585, Singapore.
authors.forename: Xiaolei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, Singapore, 117585, Singapore. cheliub@nus.edu.sg.|Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 3 Research Link, Singapore, 117602, Singapore. cheliub@nus.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: aggregation-induced emission (AIE); bioorthogonal probe; click chemistry; imaging; phototherapy