Biocompatible Nanoparticles with Aggregation‐Induced Emission Characteristics as Far‐Red/Near‐Infrared Fluorescent Bioprobes for In Vitro and In Vivo Imaging Applications

• DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201102191
• Publication Date: 2011-12-09T10:12:02Z
• Authors: Wei Qin; Dan Ding; Jianzhao Liu; Wang Zhang Yuan; Yong Hu; Bin Liu; Ben Zhong Tang
• Keywords: Bovine serum albumin; Pyran

Abstract Light emission of 2‐(2,6‐bis(( E )‐4‐(diphenylamino)styryl)‐4 H ‐pyran‐4‐ylidene)malononitrile (TPA‐DCM) is weakened by aggregate formation. Attaching tetraphenylethene (TPE) units as terminals to TPA‐DCM dramatically changes its behavior: the resulting fluorogen, )‐4‐(phenyl(4′‐(1,2,2‐triphenylvinyl)‐[1,1′‐biphenyl]‐4‐yl)amino)styryl)‐4 (TPE‐TPA‐DCM), more emissive in state, showing novel phenomenon aggregation‐induced (AIE). Formulation TPE‐TPA‐DCM using bovine serum albumin (BSA) polymer matrix yields uniformly sized protein nanoparticles (NPs) with high brightness and low cytotoxicity. Applications fluorogen‐loaded BSA NPs for vitro vivo far‐red/near‐infrared (FR/NIR) bioimaging are successfully demonstrated MCF‐7 breast‐cancer cells a murine hepatoma‐22 (H 22 )‐tumor‐bearing mouse model, respectively. The AIE‐active show an excellent cancer cell uptake prominent tumor‐targeting ability due enhanced permeability retention effect.