A Cyanine-Modified Nanosystem for in Vivo Upconversion Luminescence Bioimaging of Methylmercury

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Yi Liu ; Min Chen ; Tianye Cao ; Yun Sun ; Chunyan Li ; Qian Liu ; Tianshe Yang ; Liming Yao ; Wei Feng ; Fuyou Li
• 刊名：The Journal of the American Chemical Society
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：July 3, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：135
• 期：26
• 页码：9869-9876
• 全文大小：494K
• 年卷期：v.135,no.26(July 3, 2013)
• ISSN：1520-5126

文摘

Methylmercury (MeHg⁺) is a strong liposoluble ion, which can be accumulated in the organs of animals and can cause prenatal nervous system and visceral damage. Therefore, the efficient and sensitive monitoring of MeHg⁺ in organisms is of great importance. Upconversion luminescence (UCL) detection based on rare-earth upconversion nanophosphors (UCNPs) as probes has been proved to exhibit a large anti-Stokes shift, no autofluorescence from biological samples, a remarkably deep penetration depth, and no photobleaching. In this study, a hydrophobic heptamethine cyanine dye (hCy7) modified by two long alkyl moieties and amphiphilic polymer (P-PEG)-modified nanophosphors (hCy7-UCNPs) was fabricated as a highly sensitive water-soluble probe for UCL monitoring and bioimaging of MeHg⁺. Further application of hCy7-UCNPs for sensing MeHg⁺ was confirmed by an optical titration experiment and upconversion luminescence live cell imaging. Using the ratiometric upconversion luminescence as a detection signal, which provides a built-in correction for environmental effects, the detection limit of MeHg⁺ for this nanosystem was as low as 0.18 ppb. Importantly, the hCy7-UCNPs nanosystem was shown to be capable of monitoring MeHg⁺ex vivo and in vivo by upconversion luminescence bioimaging.