Issue 8, 2015

An enzyme-responsive metal-enhanced near-infrared fluorescence sensor based on functionalized gold nanoparticles

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging is promising due to the high penetration depths and minimal levels of autofluorescence in living systems. However, it suffers from low fluorescent quantum yield, and metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) is considered to be a promising technique to overcome this. Stimuli-responsive NIR fluorescence enhancement shows remarkable potential for applications in medical imaging and diagnosis. Herein, we successfully fabricated an enzyme-responsive near-infrared sensor based on MEF by functionalizing gold nanoparticles with NIR fluorophores and enzyme-responsive self-aggregation moieties. The NIR fluorescence of fluorophores on the gold nanoparticles was significantly enhanced due to increases both in the light scattering intensity and in the radiative decay rate (kr) of the NIR fluorophores, along with relatively small variation in the nonradiative decay rate. This novel strategy for NIR fluorescent sensors should be particularly promising for NIR fluorescence imaging of enzyme activities and early diagnosis based on rationally designed nanomaterials.

Graphical abstract: An enzyme-responsive metal-enhanced near-infrared fluorescence sensor based on functionalized gold nanoparticles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
22 May 2015
Accepted
04 Jun 2015
First published
19 Jun 2015
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2015,6, 4934-4939

An enzyme-responsive metal-enhanced near-infrared fluorescence sensor based on functionalized gold nanoparticles

Z. Zeng, S. Mizukami, K. Fujita and K. Kikuchi, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 4934 DOI: 10.1039/C5SC01850A

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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