Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles for Fluorescence Imaging and Sensing of Neurotransmitter Dopamine in Living Cells and the Brains of Zebrafish Larvae

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 7; no. 33; pp. 18581 - 18589
• Main Authors: Qian, Cheng-Gen, Zhu, Sha, Feng, Pei-Jian, Chen, Yu-Lei, Yu, Ji-Cheng, Tang, Xin, Liu, Yun, Shen, Qun-Dong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 26.08.2015
• Subjects: Animals; Boronic Acids - chemistry; Brain - metabolism; Dopamine - metabolism; Dynamic Light Scattering; Fluorescent Dyes - chemistry; Larva - metabolism; Light; Microscopy, Confocal; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanoparticles - metabolism; PC12 Cells; Polymers - chemical synthesis; Polymers - chemistry; Rats; Zebrafish - growth & development; Zebrafish - metabolism; nanoparticles; dopamine; fluorescence sensing; conjugated polymers; bioimaging
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b04987

Nanoscale materials are now attracting a great deal of attention for biomedical applications. Conjugated polymer nanoparticles have remarkable photophysical properties that make them highly advantageous for biological fluorescence imaging. We report on conjugated polymer nanoparticles with phenylboronic acid tags on the surface for fluorescence detection of neurotransmitter dopamine in both living PC12 cells and brain of zebrafish larvae. The selective enrichment of dopamine and fluorescence signal amplification characteristics of the nanoparticles show rapid and high-sensitive probing such neurotransmitter with the detection limit of 38.8 nM, and minimum interference from other endogenous molecules. It demonstrates the potential of nanomaterials as a multifunctional nanoplatform for targeting, diagnosis, and therapy of dopamine-relative disease.