Photoactivation Inducing Multifunctional Coupling of Fluorophore for Efficient Tumor Therapy In Situ.

Photoactivatable molecules, with high-precision spatialtemporal control, have largely promoted bioimaging and phototherapy applications of fluorescent dyes. Here, the first photoactivatable sensor (BI) is described that can be triggered by broad excitation light (405-660 nm), which further undergoes intersystem crossing and H-atom transfer processes to forming superoxide anion radicals (O2 -•) and carbon radicals. Particularly, the photoinduced gain of carbon-centered radicals (BI•) allows for radical-radical coupling to afford the combined crosslink product (BI─BI), which would be oxidized in the presence of O2 -• to produce an extended conjugate system with near infrared emission (820 nm). Besides, the photochemically generated product (Cy─BI) possesses ultra-high photothermal conversion efficiency up to 90.9%, which optimized phototherapy potential. What's more, Western Blot assay reveals that both BI and the photoproduct Cy─BI can efficiently inhibit the expression of CHK1, and the irradiation of BI and Cy─BI further induces apoptosis and ultimately enhances the phototherapeutic effects. Thus, the combination of cell cycle block inducing apoptosis, photodynamic therapy and photothermal therapy treatments significantly suppress solid tumor in vivo antitumor efficacy explorations. This is a novel finding in developing photoactivatable molecules, as well as the broad applicability of photoimaging and phototherapy in tumor-related areas.

Development of Human Serum Albumin Fluorescent Probes in Detection, Imaging, and Disease Therapy.

Human serum albumin (HSA) acts as a repository and transporter of substances in the blood. An abnormal concentration may indicate the occurrence of liver- and kidney-related diseases, which has attracted people to investigate the precise quantification of HSA in body fluids. Fluorescent probes can combine with HSA covalently or noncovalently to quantify HSA in urine and plasma. Moreover, probes combined with HSA can improve its photophysical properties; probe-HSA has been applied in real-time monitoring and photothermal and photodynamic therapy in vivo. This Review will introduce fluorescent probes for quantitative HSA according to the three reaction mechanisms of spatial structure, enzymatic reaction, and self-assembly and systematically introduce the application of probes combined with HSA in disease imaging and phototherapy. It will help develop multifunctional applications for HSA probes and provide assistance in the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases.

A summary of calixarene-based fluorescent sensors developed during the past five years.

Calixarenes are "chalice like" phenol-based macrocycles that are one of the most fascinating studied scaffolds in supramolecular chemistry. Their preorganized nonpolar cavities and ion binding sites, and their well-defined conformations all lay important foundations for forming host-guest complexes. Conjugation of calixarene scaffolds with various fluorophores at either upper or lower rims has led to the development of smart fluorescent probes for inorganic molecules or ions, aliphatic or aromatic compounds, biomolecules, temperature and hypoxia, even multi-component traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Moreover, significant advancements have been made for biological applications. This review critically summarizes the recent advances made in these areas.

UV-vis spectroscopic study directly detecting inorganic phosphorus in urine and our reagent kit.

The determination of inorganic phosphorus in human urine is very important, since it has diagnostic value in some clinical cases. Here we apply a simple, sensitive and direct method to determine inorganic phosphorus in urine. This new ensemble is prepared by adding ytterbium chloride and pyrocatechol violet in a 2:1 molar ratio in an aqueous solution of 10 mM 2-[4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazinyl]ethanesulfonic acid buffer at pH 7.0. The addition of the urine sample turned the blue ensemble yellow and altered the UV-vis absorption spectra. The ensemble exhibits excellent selectivity for inorganic phosphorus over other constituents of urine. We validate the accuracy of our method by the standard procedure (molybdenum blue assay for phosphate). The detection results are basically consistent with normal excretion of phosphate. Furthermore, we fabricated a new kind of inorganic phosphorus reagent kit, which enables us to inspect phosphate concentrations of urine with the naked eye. Fit for all kinds of various clinic uses, our reagent kit is a hopeful substitute for the molybdenum reagent kit.