文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：An enzyme-activatable probe liberating AIEgens: on-site sensing and long-term tracking of -galactosidase in ovarian cancer cells

作者：Gu, Kaizhi[1,2];Qiu, Wanshan[3];Guo, Zhiqian[1,2,4];Yan, Chenxu[1,2];Zhu, Shiqin[1,2];Yao, Defan[1,2];Shi, Ping[4];Tian, He[1,2];Zhu, Wei-Hong[1,2]

机构：[1]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Chem & Mol Engn, Feringa Nobel Prize Sci Joint Res Ctr, Shanghai Key Lab Funct Mat Chem,Key Lab Adv Mat, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[2]East China Univ Sci & Technol, Sch Chem & Mol Engn, Feringa Nobel Prize Sci Joint Res Ctr, Joint Int Res Lab Precis Chem & Mol Engn,Inst Fin, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[3]Fudan Univ, Childrens Hosp, Dept Cardiothorac Surg, Shanghai 201102, Peoples R China;[4]East China Univ Sci & Technol, State Key Lab Bioreactor Engn, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China

年份：2019

卷号：10

期号：2

起止页码：398

外文期刊名：CHEMICAL SCIENCE

收录：;EI(收录号：20190206355925);WOS:【SCI-EXPANDED(收录号:WOS:000454938900003)】；

基金：This work was supported by the NSFC/China (21788102, 21421004, 21636002 and 21622602), National Postdoctoral Program for Innovative Talents (BX201700075), National Key Research and Development Program (2017YFC0906902 and 2016YFA0200300), Scientific Committee of Shanghai (14ZR1409700 and 15XD1501400), Program of Introducing Talents of Discipline to Universities (B16017), and Open Funding Project of the State Key Laboratory of Bioreactor Engineering.

语种：英文

外文关键词：Hydrophobicity - Cytology - Cells - Diseases - Fluorescence - Cancer cells - Diagnosis - Enzymes

摘要：Development of fluorescent probes for on-site sensing and long-term tracking of specific biomarkers is particularly desirable for the early detection of diseases. However, available small-molecule probes tend to facilely diffuse across the cell membrane or remain at the activation site but always suffer from the aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ) effect. Here we report an enzyme-activatable aggregation-induced emission (AIE) probe QM-gal, which is composed of a hydrophilic -galactosidase (-gal)-triggered galactose moiety and a hydrophobic AIE-active fluorophore QM-OH. The probe is virtually non-emissive in aqueous media, but when activated by -gal, specific enzymatic turnover would liberate hydrophobic AIE luminogen (AIEgen) QM-OH, and then highly fluorescent nanoaggregates are in situ generated as a result of the AIE process, allowing for on-site sensing of endogenous -gal activity in living cells. Notably, taking advantage of the improved intracellular retention of nanoaggregates, we further exemplify QM-gal for long-term (approximate to 12 h) visualization of -gal-overexpressing ovarian cancer cells with high fidelity, which is essential for biomedicine and diagnostics. Thus, this enzyme-activatable AIE probe not only is a potent tool for elucidating the roles of -gal in biological systems, but also offers an enzyme-regulated liberation strategy to exploit multifunctional probes for preclinical applications.