A Universal Strategy to Construct Lanthanide-Doped Nanoparticles-Based Activable NIR-II Luminescence Probe for Bioimaging

• Published in: iScience Vol. 23; no. 3; p. 100962
• Main Authors: Li, Zhen, Wu, Junjie, Wang, Qirong, Liang, Tao, Ge, Juan, Wang, Peipei, Liu, Zhihong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 27.03.2020; Elsevier
• Subjects: Medical Imaging; Nanoparticles; Radiation Physics; Nanoparticles; Radiation Physics; Medical Imaging
• ISSN: 2589-0042; 2589-0042
• DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2020.100962

Lanthanide-doped nanoparticles (LnNPs) have gained increasing attention recently for bioimaging in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1,000–1,700 nm) because of their excellent photophysical properties, but the construction of LnNPs-based activable probe responding to specific targets remains a challenge. Herein, we proposed an uncomplicated and universal strategy to fabricate LnNPs-based NIR-II probes by target-triggered dye-sensitization process. The dye acts as both the recognition motif of the target and a potential antenna for LnNPs, which can be activated by the target to sensitize the NIR-II luminescence of LnNPs. A proof-of-concept probe for glutathione (GSH) was constructed to validate this approach. It was able to track the fluctuation of GSH level in liver and lymphatic drainage and provide clear images with high contrast and resolution in vivo. This strategy can be generalized to construct NIR-II probes for various analytes by simply changing the recognition motif of the dye, greatly promoting the application of LnNPs. [Display omitted] •A universal strategy was proposed to construct LnNPs-based activable NIR-II probe•The strategy circumvents the difficulty in designing activable probe in NIR-II region•This probe can be applied to monitor the subtle fluctuation of GSH level in vivo•It shows excellent performance in bioimaging with deep penetration and high contrast Medical Imaging; Nanoparticles; Radiation Physics