In Vivo Chemoselective Photoacoustic Imaging of Copper(II) in Plant and Animal Subjects

• Published in: Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) Vol. 15; no. 6; pp. e1803866 - n/a
• Main Authors: Zeng, Leli, Ma, Gongcheng, Xu, Han, Mu, Jing, Li, Fan, Gao, Xiaoting, Deng, Zhuoting, Qu, Junle, Huang, Peng, Lin, Jing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Germany Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.02.2019
• Subjects: Animals; Copper; Copper - metabolism; Copper compounds; copper detection; Environmental monitoring; Glycine max - metabolism; Imaging, Three-Dimensional; in vivo; In vivo methods and tests; Mice; Molecular Probes - chemistry; Nanotechnology; photoacoustic imaging; Photoacoustic Techniques - methods; plants; Soybeans; Ultrasonics; in vivo; animals; copper detection; photoacoustic imaging; plants
• ISSN: 1613-6810; 1613-6829; 1613-6829
• DOI: 10.1002/smll.201803866

The detection of Cu2+ in living plants and animals is of great importance for environment monitoring and disease diagnosis. Here, a near‐infrared (NIR) turn‐on photoacoustic (PA) probe (denoted as LET‐2) is developed for Cu2+ detection in living subjects, such as soybean sprouts and mice. The absorbance band of LET‐2 shifts from 625 to 715 nm after the interaction with Cu2+, thus producing strong PA signal output at 715 nm (PA715) as an indicator. The PA715 value is increased as a function of the concentration of Cu2+ (0 × 10−6–20 × 10−6m), with a calculated limit of detection of 10.8 × 10−9m. More importantly, both in vitro and in vivo studies in soybean sprouts and mice indicate that the as‐prepared LET‐2 PA probe is highly sensitive and selective for Cu2+ detection. These findings provide a solution for in vivo detection of metal ions by using chemoselective PA probes. A near‐infrared turn‐on photoacoustic probe (LET‐2) is developed for chemoselective photoacoustic imaging of copper(II) in plant and animal subjects.