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Formation of Highly Emissive Anthracene Excimers for Aggregation-Induced Emission/Self-Assembly Directed (Bio)imaging.

Pedro J Pacheco-LiñánCarlos Alonso-MorenoAlberto OcañaConsuelo RipollElena García-GilAndrés Garzón-RuizDiego Herrera-OchoaSofía Blas-GómezBoiko CohenIván Bravo
Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces (2023)
AIEgens have emerged as a promising alternative to molecular rotors in bioimaging applications. However, transferring the concept of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) from solution to living systems remains a challenge. Given the highly heterogeneous nature and the compartmentalization of the cell, different approaches are needed to control the self-assembly within the crowded intricate cellular environment. Herein, we report for the first time the self-assembly mechanism of an anthracene-guanidine derivative (AG) forming the rare and highly emissive T-shaped dimer in breast cancer cell lines as a proof of concept. This process is highly sensitive to the local environment in terms of polarity, viscosity, and/or water quantity that should enable the use of the AG as a fluorescence lifetime imaging biosensor for intracellular imaging of cellular structures and the monitoring of intracellular state parameters. Different populations of the monomer and T-shaped and π-π dimers were observed in the cell membrane, cytoplasm, and nucleoplasm, related to the local viscosity and presence of water. The T-shaped dimer is formed preferentially in the nucleus because of the higher density and viscosity compared to the cytoplasm. The present results should serve as a precursor for the development of new design strategies for molecular systems for a wide range of applications such as cell viscosity, density, or temperature sensing and imaging.
Keyphrases
  • high resolution
  • quantum dots
  • single cell
  • single molecule
  • stem cells
  • fluorescence imaging
  • young adults
  • reactive oxygen species
  • mass spectrometry
  • highly efficient