Single AIEgen for multiple tasks: Imaging of dual organelles and evaluation of cell viability

Ruoyao Zhang, Guangle Niu, Zhiyang Liu, Joe H.C. Chau, Huifang Su, Michelle M.S. Lee, Yuan Gu, Ryan T.K. Kwok, Jacky W.Y. Lam, Ben Zhong Tang*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

52 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Fully understanding the complicated interplays among various chemical species and organelles is greatly important to unravel the mystery of life. However, fluorescent probes capable of visualizing multiple targets discriminatively are severely deficient, which extremely limit the investigation on intracellular interplays among various species. Towards this end and in consideration of the unique advantages of aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens), here we rationally designed and presented a single AIEgen, named TVQE, bearing lipophilic, cationic and hydrolyzable moieties, and this AIEgen was capable of illuminating mitochondria and lipid droplets with red and blue emission, respectively. In addition, TVQE was successfully used for evaluating cell viability due to its distinct two-color emission changes tuned by esterase-mediated hydrolysis. Of particular importance is that TVQE can selectively differentiate live, early apoptotic, late apoptotic, and dead cells by confocal microscopy and quantify cell viability statistically by flow cytometry.

Original languageEnglish
Article number119924
JournalBiomaterials
Volume242
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jun 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • AIEgen
  • Dual organelles
  • Evaluating cell viability
  • Multiple tasks
  • Two-color emissions

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Zhang, R., Niu, G., Liu, Z., Chau, J. H. C., Su, H., Lee, M. M. S., Gu, Y., Kwok, R. T. K., Lam, J. W. Y., & Tang, B. Z. (2020). Single AIEgen for multiple tasks: Imaging of dual organelles and evaluation of cell viability. Biomaterials, 242, Article 119924. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2020.119924