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

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 11; no. 1; pp. 4655 - 10
• Main Authors: Zhou, Wei-Lei, Chen, Yong, Yu, Qilin, Zhang, Haoyang, Liu, Zhi-Xue, Dai, Xian-Yin, Li, Jing-Jing, Liu, Yu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 16.09.2020; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 119/118; 14/10; 14/19; 140/131; 147/135; 147/143; 631/67/2321; 631/80/2373; 639/638/541/960; 639/638/541/966; 9/10; A549 Cells; Aggregates; Cancer; HEK293 Cells; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hyaluronic acid; Hyaluronic Acid - chemistry; Hydrogen Bonding; Hydrogen bonds; Inclusion complexes; Linear arrays; Luminescent Measurements; Medical imaging; Microscopy, Confocal; Mitochondria; Mitochondria - drug effects; multidisciplinary; Neoplasms - diagnostic imaging; Neoplasms - pathology; Phosphorescence; Phosphors; Polymers; Polymers - chemistry; Polymers - metabolism; Room temperature; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Supramolecular polymers; Taxoids - chemistry; Temperature; Tumors; Water chemistry
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18520-7

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