Rational design of stable heptamethine cyanines and development of a biomarker-activatable probe for detecting acute lung/kidney injuries via NIR-II fluorescence imaging

Juan Ouyang; Lihe Sun; Fang Zeng; Shuizhu Wu

doi:10.1039/D1AN02183D

Rational design of stable heptamethine cyanines and development of a biomarker-activatable probe for detecting acute lung/kidney injuries via NIR-II fluorescence imaging†

Juan Ouyang,‡^a Lihe Sun,‡^a Fang Zeng

*^a and Shuizhu Wu

*^a

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* Corresponding authors

^a Biomedical Division, State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Luminescence from Molecular Aggregates, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Joint Laboratory of Optoelectronic and Magnetic Functional Materials, College of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510640, China
E-mail: mcfzeng@scut.edu.cn, shzhwu@scut.edu.cn

Abstract

Developing high-quality dyes to construct activatable probes for analyte sensing via NIR-II fluorescence is critical for attaining enhanced imaging depths and resolution. Heptamethine cyanines can serve this purpose; however, they usually have poor stability and a tendency to self-aggregate. Herein, we present a design strategy involving the installation of pyridinium and tert-butyl groups onto the central cyclohexenyl core to increase steric crowding, enhance water solubility, and provide a site for the incorporation of analyte-responsive elements. The resulting NP-N dyes emit NIR-II light and can outperform benchmark heptamethine cyanines such as ICG. Using HP-N1, we developed HP-H₂O₂ and showed that NIR-II fluorescence signals could be enhanced when treating with H₂O₂. HP-H₂O₂ was subsequently evaluated in murine models of acute lung injury and acute kidney injury. This strategy unlocks the potential of heptamethine cyanines and is applicable to examples with extended conjugation.

This article is part of the themed collection: Analyst HOT Articles 2022

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/D1AN02183D
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 02 Dec 2021
Accepted: 16 Dec 2021
First published: 17 Dec 2021

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Analyst, 2022,147, 410-416

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Rational design of stable heptamethine cyanines and development of a biomarker-activatable probe for detecting acute lung/kidney injuries via NIR-II fluorescence imaging

J. Ouyang, L. Sun, F. Zeng and S. Wu, Analyst, 2022, 147, 410 DOI: 10.1039/D1AN02183D

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Rational design of stable heptamethine cyanines and development of a biomarker-activatable probe for detecting acute lung/kidney injuries via NIR-II fluorescence imaging†

Abstract

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Rational design of stable heptamethine cyanines and development of a biomarker-activatable probe for detecting acute lung/kidney injuries via NIR-II fluorescence imaging

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