Issue 44, 2022

Surfactant-chaperoned donor–acceptor–donor NIR-II dye strategy efficiently circumvents intermolecular aggregation to afford enhanced bioimaging contrast

Abstract

Fluorescence emission in the near-infrared-II (NIR-II) optical window affords reduced autofluorescence and light scattering, enabling deep-tissue visualization for both disease detection and surgical navigation. Small-molecule NIR-II dyes are preferable for clinical bioimaging applications, as the flexibility in their molecular synthesis allows for precise control of their optical and pharmacokinetic properties. Among the various types of dye, donor–acceptor–donor-based (D–A–D) dyes demonstrate exceptional photostability, whereas the frequently used PEGylation approach does not keep their intrinsic brightness enough in water environments due to their inherent effect of self-assembly. Here, we demonstrate that the commercially-available surfactants can serve as a dispersant to prevent molecular aggregation of PEGylated D–A–D dyes. Due to the favorable energetics for co-assembly between D–A–D dyes and surfactants, the formed surfactant-chaperoned dye strategy dramatically increases dye brightness. Accordingly, this effect provides remarkably improved performance for in vivo bioimaging applications. In parallel, we also investigate the D–A–D dye uptake and signal enhancement properties in the liver of murine models and demonstrate that the lumen-lining Kupffer cells can potentially disassemble PEGylated D–A–D aggregates such that their inherent brightness is restored. This phenomenon is similar to the surfactant-chaperoned dye strategy and our investigations provide a positive addition to better use of the current NIR-II fluorophores, especially for visualizing high-brightness required events.

Graphical abstract: Surfactant-chaperoned donor–acceptor–donor NIR-II dye strategy efficiently circumvents intermolecular aggregation to afford enhanced bioimaging contrast

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
12 Okt. 2022
Accepted
23 Okt. 2022
First published
02 Nov. 2022
This article is Open Access

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

Chem. Sci., 2022,13, 13201-13211

Surfactant-chaperoned donor–acceptor–donor NIR-II dye strategy efficiently circumvents intermolecular aggregation to afford enhanced bioimaging contrast

T. Han, Y. Wang, J. Xu, N. Zhu, L. Bai, X. Liu, B. Sun, C. Yu, Q. Meng, J. Wang, Q. Su, Q. Cai, K. S. Hettie, Y. Zhang, S. Zhu and B. Yang, Chem. Sci., 2022, 13, 13201 DOI: 10.1039/D2SC05651H

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications, without requesting further permission from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given and it is not used for commercial purposes.

To request permission to reproduce material from this article in a commercial publication, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party commercial publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements