Ultralong purely organic aqueous phosphorescence supramolecular polymer for targeted tumor cell imaging

• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18520-7
• Publication Date: 2020-09-16T10:03:22Z
• Authors: Wei-Lei Zhou; Yong Chen; Qilin Yu; Haoyang Zhang; Zhi-Xue Liu; Xian-Yin Dai; Jing-Jing Li; Yu Liu
• Keywords: Supramolecular Polymers; Supramolecular assembly

Abstract Purely organic room-temperature phosphorescence has attracted attention for bioimaging but can be quenched in aqueous systems. Here we report a water-soluble ultralong phosphorescent supramolecular polymer by combining cucurbit[n]uril (CB[7], CB[8]) and hyaluronic acid (HA) as tumor-targeting ligand conjugated to 4-(4-bromophenyl)pyridin-1-ium bromide (BrBP) phosphor. The result shows that CB[7] mediated pseudorotaxane CB[7]/HA–BrBP changes from small spherical aggregates linear array, whereas complexation with CB[8] results biaxial CB[8]/HA–BrBP which transforms relatively large aggregates. Owing the more stable 1:2 inclusion complex between BrBP multiple hydrogen bonds, this purely RTP lifetime water up 4.33 ms quantum yield of 7.58%. Benefiting targeting property HA, is successfully applied cancer cell targeted imaging mitochondria.