Work

Construction of Triphenylamine-Based Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens for Lysosomes Imaging and Its Application in the Photodynamic Therapy of Cancer Cells

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Lysosomes are important acidic subcellular organelles whose dysfunction can lead to some related diseases. The development of new lysosome-imaging-guided AIEgens for the photodynamic therapy of cancer cells is important. In this work, two novel organic compounds with AIE characteristics, namely, TPAB-CF3 and TPAB-diCF3, were designed and synthesized by introducing the weakly basic morpholinyl moiety with lysosome-targeting ability into a triphenylamine-based luminogen. The distorted spatial feature of TPA and the D1-D2-π-A structure of these AIEgens prevented the aggregation-caused quenching of traditional fluorescent molecules and efficiently promoted the separation of the HOMO and LUMO. The outcomes were AIE features and a narrow single-triplet energy gap. Furthermore, TPAB-CF3 and TPAB-diCF3 showed bright yellow fluorescence emission peaks at 577 and 601 nm; large Stokes shifts of 234 and 256 nm, respectively; and excellent lysosome-targeted imaging of HeLa cells (Pearson’s coefficient = 0.90). In addition to the good 1O2-generation ability under light irradiation, these AIEgens achieved the high-efficiency bright lysosome imaging-guided photodynamic killing of cancer cells under white-light irradiation.

Source: Molecules

DOI: 10.3390/molecules30112272

Authors: Zhanguo Sun, Bin Liu, Huijun Liu

Institutions: Shanxi Datong University, Shanxi University

Language: English

Topic: Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials

Subfield: Materials Chemistry

Field: Materials Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,258