Dual-Emission Carbonized Polymer Dots for Ratiometric pH Sensing, pH-Dependent Generation of Singlet Oxygen, and Imaging-Guided Dynamics Monitoring of Photodynamic Therapy

  • ACS Appl Bio Mater. 2021 Oct 18;4(10):7663-7672. doi: 10.1021/acsabm.1c00892.
Xiaoxiao Hu  1 ,  Qiang Zhang  1 ,  Xiaomei Dai  1 ,  Junyong Sun  1 ,  Feng Gao  1
Affiliations
  • 1. Laboratory of Functionalized Molecular Solids, Ministry of Education, Anhui Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing, Laboratory of Biosensing and Bioimaging (LOBAB), College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Anhui Normal University, Wuhu 241002, P. R. China.
PMID: 35006696 DOI: 10.1021/acsabm.1c00892
Abstract

The pH environment in Cancer cells has been demonstrated to display vital influences on the therapeutic effect of photodynamic therapy (PDT). It is very interesting to develop pH-responsive probes for simultaneous pH sensing and dynamics monitoring of the effects of PDT, and therefore assessing the correlation between them. In this study, a multifunctional fluorescence probe, dual-emission carbonized polymer dot (CPD) in blue and red regions, which uses ethylene imine polymer (PEI) and 4,4',4″,4‴-(porphine-5, 10, 15, 20-tetrayl) tetrakis (benzoic acid) (TCPP) as precursors through a one-step hydrothermal amide reaction, has been designed for ratiometric pH sensing, generating pH-dependent 1O2 for PDT of Cancer cells, and investigating the dynamics effects of PDT through pH-guided imaging. The prepared CPDs were successfully used for ratiometric pH response, pH-dependent generation of 1O2, and dynamics monitoring PDT in HeLa cells. This study may provide an alternative strategy to prepare CPD-based theranostic integrated nanoprobes for PDT through the rational design of precursors.

Keywords
carbonized polymer dots; fluorescence imaging; fluorescent probe; generation of singlet oxygen; photodynamic therapy; ratiometric pH sensing.
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