An activatable liposomal fluorescence probe based on fluorescence resonance energy transfer and aggregation induced emission effect for sensitive tumor imaging

Colloids Surf B Biointerfaces. 2020 Apr:188:110789. doi: 10.1016/j.colsurfb.2020.110789. Epub 2020 Jan 13.

Abstract

Liposomes are of great interest and importance in tumor imaging, since they can greatly improve the imaging sensitivity and specificity by increasing the accumulation of contrast agents. Still, most liposome-based probes have high background signals during blood circulation, which limits enhancement of S/B ratio and tumor imaging sensitivity. To enhance the S/B ratio of tumor imaging, we construct a fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) and aggregation induced emission (AIE) based liposomal fluorescence probe TPE/BHQ-lipo with excellent FRET effect (99 %) and great fluorescence enhancement upon liposome rupture (120-fold) as well as efficient fluorescence recovery in tumor cell imaging. Finally, we used the TPE/BHQ-lipo to image 4T1 tumor upon intravenous injection of liposomes and the group showed enhanced signal to background ratio of 4.1, compared to 1.8 from control AIE-based liposomal group (TPE-lipo). Our work offers an excellent FRET and AIE-based liposomal probe for high-sensitive tumor imaging.

Keywords: Aggregation induced emission; Fluorescence imaging; Fluorescence resonance energy transfer; Liposome; Tumor imaging.

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Breast Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging*
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Female
  • Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer*
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemical synthesis
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemistry*
  • Liposomes / chemical synthesis
  • Liposomes / chemistry
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred BALB C
  • Molecular Structure
  • Optical Imaging*
  • Particle Size
  • Surface Properties

Substances

  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Liposomes