Affiliation:
1. College of Chemistry Institute of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science Henan Joint International Research Laboratory of Green Construction of Functional Molecules and Their Bioanalytical Applications Zhengzhou Key Laboratory of Functional Nanomaterial and Medical Theranostic Zhengzhou University Zhengzhou 450001 China
Abstract
AbstractHepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has gradually become a pronoun for terrifying death owing to its high mortality rate. With the progression of HCC, lipid droplets (LDs) in HCC cells exhibit specific variations such as increased LDs number and decreased polarity, which can serve as the diagnostic target. However, developing an effective method to achieve HCC diagnosis and reveal LDs polarity heterogeneity is still a crucial challenge. Herein, the first high‐performance LDs‐targeting probe (1) is reported based on ketocyanine strategy with ultrasensitive polarity‐responding ability and near‐infrared emission. Probe 1 shows excellent sensitivity to polarity parameter Δf (0.027–0.290) with 808‐fold fluorescence enhancement and the emission wavelength red‐shifts 91 nm. In HCC cells, probe 1 shows a 2.5‐ to 5.9‐fold fluorescence enhancement compared with normal and other cancer cells which exceeds clinical threshold of 2.0, indicating probe 1 can distinguish HCC cells. The LDs polarity heterogeneity is revealed and it displays a sequence, HCC cells < other cancer cells < normal cells, which may provide useful insight to engineer LDs‐targeting probes for HCC cell discrimination. Finally, probe 1 realizes accurate HCC diagnosis on the cellular, organ, and in vivo levels, providing a satisfying tool for clinical HCC diagnosis and surgical navigation.
Funder
National Key Research and Development Program of China
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Excellent Youth Development Foundation of Zhengzhou University
Key Laboratory in Science and Technology Development Project of Suzhou