Three birds with one stone: a single AIEgen for dual-organelle imaging, cell viability evaluation and photodynamic cancer cell ablation

Abstract

Fully understanding the relationship among various organelles and cell viability is greatly important to clarify the mechanism of cancer diagnosis and treatment. However, the development of a single fluorescent probe capable of visualizing dual-organelles, cell viability and photodynamic therapy (PDT) of cancer cells is severely deficient. Herein, we rationally designed and presented a multifunctional aggregation-induced emission luminogen (AIEgen), Mito-TTPE, which first localized in mitochondria with near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence, and further was partially hydrolyzed by esterase, resulting in the accumulation of lipophilic and blue-emissive LD-TTP in lipid droplets. Owing to the distinct two-color emission and dual-organelle targeting changes tuned by esterase hydrolysis, Mito-TTPE was successfully used for evaluating cell viability. More importantly, the remarkable ROS generation ability of Mito-TTPE enabled the efficient photodynamic ablation of cancer cells.