Volume 60, Issue 10 pp. 5091-5095
Communication

NIR-II pH Sensor with a FRET Adjustable Transition Point for In Situ Dynamic Tumor Microenvironment Visualization

Dr. Mengyao Zhao

Dr. Mengyao Zhao

Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Jianbo Wang

Corresponding Author

Dr. Jianbo Wang

Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

College of Biological, Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Jiaxing University, Jiaxing, 314001 China

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Zuhai Lei

Dr. Zuhai Lei

Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

Search for more papers by this author
Lingfei Lu

Lingfei Lu

Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Shangfeng Wang

Dr. Shangfeng Wang

Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Hongxin Zhang

Dr. Hongxin Zhang

Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

Search for more papers by this author
Dr. Benhao Li

Dr. Benhao Li

Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

Search for more papers by this author
Prof. Fan Zhang

Corresponding Author

Prof. Fan Zhang

Department of Chemistry, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers and iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433 China

Search for more papers by this author
First published: 10 December 2020
Citations: 137

Graphical Abstract

An adjustable pH transition point sensor is reported. It functions by regulating the FRET donor-acceptor ratio for dynamic pH visualization of a tumor through NIR-II ratiometric fluorescence imaging.

Abstract

Monitoring the pH in tumor lesions provides abundant physiological information. However, currently developed pH sensors only achieve sensitive detection in the settled response region around the pH transition point (pHt). To realize tumor pH monitoring with high sensitivity within a wider response region, reported here are serial pHt adjustable sensors (pTAS) that simply regulate the component ratio of second near-infrared (NIR-II) emission aza-BODIPY (NAB) donor and pH sensitive rhodamine-based pre-acceptor (NRh) in Förster resonance energy transfer system. Combining the pH response regions of pTAS, a twofold widened pH detection range (6.11–7.22) is obtained compared to the pHt settled sensor (6.38–6.94). With an adjustable pHt, in vivo tumor pH increase and decrease processes could be dynamically visualized through dual-channel ratiometric bioimaging within the NIR-II window, with a coefficient of variation under 1 % compared to the standard pH meter.

The full text of this article hosted at iucr.org is unavailable due to technical difficulties.