Hierarchical Self-Assembly Molecular Building Blocks as Intelligent Nanoplatforms for Ovarian Cancer Theranostics.

Hierarchical self-assembly from simple building blocks to complex polymers is a feasible approach to constructing multi-functional smart materials. However, the polymerization process of polymers often involves challenges such as the design of building blocks and the drive of external energy. Here, a hierarchical self-assembly with self-driven and energy conversion capabilities based on p-aminophenol and diethylenetriamine building blocks is reported. Through ß-galactosidase (ß-Gal) specific activation to the self-assembly, the intelligent assemblies (oligomer and superpolymer) with excellent photothermal and fluorescent properties are dynamically formed in situ, and thus the sensitive multi-mode detection of ß-Gal activity is realized. Based on the overexpression of ß-Gal in ovarian cancer cells, the self-assembly superpolymer is specifically generated in SKOV-3 cells to achieve fluorescence imaging. The photothermal therapeutic ability of the self-assembly oligomer (synthesized in vitro) is evaluated by a subcutaneous ovarian cancer model, showing satisfactory anti-tumor effects. This work expands the construction of intelligent assemblies through the self-driven cascade assembly of small molecules and provides new methods for the diagnosis and treatment of ovarian cancer.

A Membrane-Targeted Photosensitizer Prevents Drug Resistance and Induces Immune Response in Treating Candidiasis.

Candida albicans (C. albicans), a ubiquitous polymorphic fungus in humans, causes different types of candidiasis, including oral candidiasis (OC) and vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC), which are physically and mentally concerning and financially costly. Thus, developing alternative antifungals that prevent drug resistance and induce immunity to eliminate Candida biofilms is crucial. Herein, a novel membrane-targeted aggregation-induced emission (AIE) photosensitizer (PS), TBTCP-QY, is developed for highly efficient photodynamic therapy (PDT) of candidiasis. TBTCP-QY has a high molar absorption coefficient and an excellent ability to generate 1 O2 and •OH, entering the interior of biofilms due to its high permeability. Furthermore, TBTCP-QY can efficiently inhibit biofilm formation by suppressing the expression of genes related to the adhesion (ALS3, EAP1, and HWP1), invasion (SAP1 and SAP2), and drug resistance (MDR1) of C. albicans, which is also advantageous for eliminating potential fungal resistance to treat clinical infectious diseases. TBTCP-QY-mediated PDT efficiently targets OC and VVC in vivo in a mouse model, induces immune response, relieves inflammation, and accelerates the healing of mucosal defects to combat infections caused by clinically isolated fluconazole-resistant strains. Moreover, TBTCP-QY demonstrates excellent biocompatibility, suggesting its potential applications in the clinical treatment of OC and VVC.

Bibliometric Analysis Reveals the Progress of PM2.5 in Health Research, Especially in Cancer Research.

PM2.5 has an aerodynamic diameter of less than or equal to 2.5 microns due to its inherent physical and chemical properties so that it can enter the alveoli through the respiratory tract for blood gas exchange. Numerous studies have shown that PM2.5 is a serious air pollutant that poses a wide range of health risks, especially for cancer. Bibliometric methods were employed to have comprehensively analyzed the research of PM2.5 in cancer for about a decade in Web of Science to identify hotspots and trends using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and R. The field has undergone overall growth in the past decade. As research on PM2.5 in health deepens, cancer related to it expanded beyond the respiratory system to the digestive system, urinary system, female gonadal axis, breast cancer and other cancers. Another observation is that research on PM2.5 in cancer has progressed in the mechanisms of deterioration, such as the role of matrix metalloproteinases in cancer. In addition, research on the risks of PM2.5 in combination with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and heavy metals has also emerged. Results showed that there are relatively more studies on PM2.5 in high-latitude countries, which may be due to different national conditions, such as climate and coal combustion. Our research has combed through the progress of PM2.5 in cancer research and provided a supplement for developing pollution prevention ideas with different national conditions in this field.

Highly Efficient Photodynamic Therapy with Mitochondria-Targeting Aggregation-Induced Emission Photosensitizer for Retinoblastoma.

Retinoblastoma (RB) is an aggressive eye cancer in infancy and childhood, lethal by metastasis if left untreated. Currently, the survival rate and the chance of saving vision depend on the severity of the disease. In this work, a highly efficient photodynamic ophthalmic therapy for RB is reported by employing an isoquinolinium-based aggregation-induced-emission (AIE) photosensitizer (PS) TPE-IQ-2O for photodynamic inactivation (PDI). TPE-IQ-2O is an efficient mitochondria-targeting photosensitizer as an efficient guided photodynamic therapy (PDT) agent against cancer cells. Maximizing cancer-selectively damage to tumors with minimized side effects on normal tissue is essential for effective anticancer PDT and provides long-lasting protection against metastasis. In addition, TPE-IQ-2O can effectively reduce the degree of tissue inflammation by inhibiting the expression of related inflammatory factors. TPE-IQ-2O also exhibits excellent biocompatibility with a neglectable hemolysis effect on mouse red blood cells and almost no killing effect on mammalian cells, which enables its potential applications in the treatment of RB.

Highly Twisted Conformation Thiopyrylium Photosensitizers for In Vivo Near Infrared-II Imaging and Rapid Inactivation of Coronavirus.

Despite significant effort, a majority of heavy-atom-free photosensitizers have short excitation wavelengths, thereby hampering their biomedical applications. Here, we present a facile approach for developing efficient near-infrared (NIR) heavy-atom-free photosensitizers. Based on a series of thiopyrylium-based NIR-II (1000-1700 nm) dyads, we found that the star dyad HD with a sterically bulky and electron-rich moiety exhibited configuration torsion and significantly enhanced intersystem crossing (ISC) compared to the parent dyad. The electron excitation characteristics of HD changed from local excitation (LE) to charge transfer (CT)-domain, contributing to a ≈6-fold reduction in energy gap (ΔEST ), a ≈10-fold accelerated ISC process, and a ≈31.49-fold elevated reactive oxygen species (ROS) quantum yield. The optimized SP@HD-PEG2K lung-targeting dots enabled real-time NIR-II lung imaging, which precisely guided rapid pulmonary coronavirus inactivation.

Engineered Phage with Aggregation-Induced Emission Photosensitizer in Cocktail Therapy against Sepsis.

Sepsis, a widely recognized disease, is characterized by multiple pathogen infections. Therefore, it is imperative to develop methods that can efficiently identify and neutralize pathogen species. Phage cocktail therapy utilizes the host specificity of phages to adapt to infect resistant bacteria. However, its low sterilization stability efficiency and lack of imaging units seriously restrict its application. Here, a novel strategy combining the aggregation-induced emission photosensitizer (AIE-PS) TBTCP-PMB with phages through a nucleophilic substitution reaction between benzyl bromide and sulfhydryl groups to remove pathogenic bacteria for sepsis treatment is proposed. This strategy retains the phage's host specificity while possessing AIE-PS characteristics with a fluorescence imaging function and reactive oxygen species (ROS) for detecting and sterilizing bacteria. This synergetic strategy combining phage cocktail therapy and photodynamic therapy (PDT) shows a strong "1 + 1 > 2" bactericidal efficacy and superior performance in sepsis mouse models with good biocompatibility. Furthermore, the strategy can quickly diagnose blood infections of clinical blood samples. This simple and accurate strategy provides a promising therapeutic platform for rapid pathogen detection and point-of-care diagnosis. Moreover, it presents a new method for expanding the library of antibacterial drugs to develop new strain identification and improve infectious disease treatment, thereby demonstrating strong translational potential.

Single-Cell Sequencing Yields Insights in the Evolution of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Persistent Infection.

Foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) could cause acute infection in host cells, or they could coexist with host cells to generate persistent infection. In persistent infection, the virus could survive for a long time in the host and could be transmitted between different host cells. In the case of FMDV-persistent infection cell line, there is a remarkable significant cellular heterogeneity in the FMDV-persistent infection cell line due to differences of viral load in the individual cells within the cell line. However, the mechanisms of FMDV-persistent infection are not well understood. It is now generally accepted that multiple factors contribute to the coevolution of viruses and cells during the course of persistent infection. The outcome would influence the development of persistent FMDV infection conjointly, reaching a state of equilibrium ultimately. Therefore, in order to elucidate the mechanism of cellular heterogeneity in FMDV-persistent infection cell line, single-cell sequencing was performed on BHK-Op, and pseudotime trajectory plot was draw through cell cluster. Based on the cell clusters, we predicted the development and progression of the FMDV-persistent infection. It could be well explained by the fact that, in BHK-Op cells, there are a fraction of infected cells and a fraction of virus-exposed but uninfected bystander cells. By further comparing the transcripts in cell clusters, we found that these genes were involved in changes in ribosome biogenesis, cell cycle, and intracellular signaling including the interferon signaling pathway and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling pathway. Through comprehensive cross-tabulation analysis of differential expressed genes in various cluster of cells, we identified a high association of Fos, a downstream transcription factor of the MAPK/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) signaling pathway, with viral replication during the formation of FMDV-persistent infection. Through the further study of Fos, we found that downregulation of Fos facilitates viral clearance during FMDV-persistent infection. Upregulation of c-Raf, which is the upstream of the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway, could promote FMDV replication through downregulation of Fos. Our research is the first to provide insight into the mechanism of the formation FMDV-persistent infection through single-cell sequencing using persistent infection cell line. Pseudotime trajectory analysis was the first time to apply for FMDV-persistent infection cell line. Our work highlights the detailed overview of the evolution of FMDV-persistent infection. We also analyzed the differential expressed genes in the replication or elimination of FMDV within the host. We found that the MAPK/ERK signaling pathway and its downstream transcription factor Fos play an important role in FMDV-persistent infection.

Simultaneous Photodynamic Eradication of Tooth Biofilm and Tooth Whitening with an Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogen.

Dental caries is among the most prevalent dental diseases globally, which arises from the formation of microbial biofilm on teeth. Besides, tooth whitening represents one of the fastest-growing areas of cosmetic dentistry. It will thus be great if tooth biofilm eradication can be combined with tooth whitening. Herein, a highly efficient photodynamic dental therapy strategy is reported for tooth biofilm eradication and tooth discoloration by employing a photosensitizer (DTTPB) with aggregation-induced emission characteristics. DTTPB can efficiently inactivate S. mutans, and inhibit biofilm formation by suppressing the expression of genes associated with extracellular polymeric substance synthesis, bacterial adhesion, and superoxide reduction. Its inhibition performance can be further enhanced through combined treatment with chlorhexidine. Besides, DTTPB exhibits an excellent tooth-discoloration effect on both colored saliva-coated hydroxyapatite and clinical teeth, with short treatment time (less than 1 h), better tooth-whitening performance than 30% hydrogen peroxide, and almost no damage to the teeth. DTTPB also demonstrates excellent biocompatibility with neglectable hemolysis effect on mouse red blood cells and almost no killing effect on mammalian cells, which enables its potential applications for simultaneous tooth biofilm eradication and tooth whitening in clinical dentistry.

Sera Metabolomics Characterization of Patients at Different Stages in Wuhan Identifies Critical Biomarkers of COVID-19.

We have witnessed the 2-year-long global rampage of COVID-19 caused by the wide spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, knowledge about biomarkers of the entire COVID-19 process is limited. Identification of the systemic features of COVID-19 will lead to critical biomarkers and therapeutic targets for early intervention and clinical disease course prediction. Here, we performed a comprehensive analysis of clinical measurements and serum metabolomics in 199 patients with different stages of COVID-19. In particular, our study is the first serum metabolomic analysis of critical rehabilitation patients and critical death patients. We found many differential metabolites in the comparison of metabolomic results between ordinary, severe, and critical patients and uninfected patients. Through the metabolomic results of COVID-19 patients in various stages, and critical rehabilitation patients and critical death patients, we identified a series of differential metabolites as biomarkers, a separate queue and precise distinction, and predicted COVID-19 verification. These differentially expressed metabolites, included 1,2-di-(9Z,12Z-octadecadienoyl)-sn-glycero-3-phosphate, propylparaben, 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid, triethanolamine, chavicol, disialosyl galactosyl globoside, 1-arachidonoylglycerophosphoinositol, and alpha-methylstyrene, all of which have been identified for the first time as biomarkers in COVID-19 progression. These biomarkers are involved in many pathological and physiological pathways of COVID-19, for example, immune responses, platelet degranulation, and metabolism which might result in pathogenesis. Our results showed valuable information about metabolites obviously altered in COVID-19 patients with different stages, which could shed light on the pathogenesis as well as serve as potential therapeutic agents of COVID-19.

A Second Near-Infrared Ru(II) Polypyridyl Complex for Synergistic Chemo-Photothermal Therapy.

The clinical success of cisplatin ushered in a new era of the application of metallodrugs. When it comes to practice, however, drug resistance, tumor recurrence, and drug systemic toxicity make it implausible to completely heal the patients. Herein, we successfully transform an electron acceptor [1, 2, 5]thiadiazolo[3,4-g]quinoxaline into a novel second near-infrared (NIR-II) fluorophore H7. After PEGylation and chelation, HL-PEG2k exhibits a wavelength bathochromic shift, enhanced photothermal conversion efficiency (41.77%), and an antineoplastic effect against glioma. Its potential for in vivo tumor tracking and image-guided chemo-photothermal therapy is explored. High levels of uptake and high-resolution NIR-II imaging results are thereafter obtained. The hyperthermia effect could disrupt the lysosomal membranes, which in turn aggravate the mitochondria dysfunction, arrest the cell cycle in the G2 phase, and finally lead to cancer cell apoptosis. HL-PEG2k displays a superior biocompatibility and thus can be a potential theranostic platform to combat the growth and recurrence of tumors.

A silver lining in cell line authentication: Short tandem repeat analysis of 1373 cases in China from 2010 to 2019.

Continuous cell lines are practical models that are widely used in the study of disease mechanisms and particularly cancers. However, the issue of cell line cross-contamination has existed since the 1960s, despite repeated advocation for cell line authentication by many experts. Furthermore, cell line abuse has been underestimated and underreported. The China Center for Type Culture Collection (CCTCC) received 1373 cell samples for authentication from 2010 to 2019, and has found that the quality of cell lines has improved during this time, offering a positive outlook for the future.

Single-Cell RNA Sequencing Reveals Multiple Pathways and the Tumor Microenvironment Could Lead to Chemotherapy Resistance in Cervical Cancer.

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer is one of the most common gynecological cancers worldwide. The tumor microenvironment significantly influences the therapeutic response and clinical outcome. However, the complex tumor microenvironment of cervical cancer and the molecular mechanisms underlying chemotherapy resistance are not well studied. This study aimed to comprehensively analyze cells from pretreated and chemoresistant cervical cancer tissues to generate a molecular census of cell populations. METHODS: Biopsy tissues collected from patients with cervical squamous cell carcinoma, cervical adenocarcinoma, and chronic cervicitis were subjected to single-cell RNA sequencing using the 10× Genomics platform. Unsupervised clustering analysis of cells was performed to identify the main cell types, and important cell clusters were reclustered into subpopulations. Gene expression profiles and functional enrichment analysis were used to explore gene expression and functional differences between cell subpopulations in cervicitis and cervical cancer samples and between chemoresistant and chemosensitive samples. RESULTS: A total of 24,371 cells were clustered into nine separate cell types, including immune and non-immune cells. Differentially expressed genes between chemoresistant and chemosensitive patients enriched in the phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/AKT pathway were involved in tumor development, progression, and apoptosis, which might lead to chemotherapy resistance. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides a comprehensive overview of the cancer microenvironment landscape and characterizes its gene expression and functional difference in chemotherapy resistance. Consequently, our study deepens the insights into cervical cancer biology through the identification of gene markers for diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy.

High-Performance Near-Infrared Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogen with Mitophagy Regulating Capability for Multimodal Cancer Theranostics.

The construction of intelligent near-infrared (NIR) fluorophores for high specificity to cancer cells and application in multiple therapeutic modalities is crucial for precise cancer diagnostic and therapy. In this study, an aggregation-induced emission-active NIR fluorophore (TACQ) with mitophagy-modulating activity was synthesized and developed for mitochondrial targeting multimodal cancer theranostics. The strengthened push-pull interaction extended the emission of TACQ into the NIR-II region (>1000 nm). Further, the rotor structure and twisted molecular conformation enables nanoaggregates of TACQ to balance the radiative and nonradiative decays to simultaneously exhibit bright NIR emission, high photothermal conversion efficiency (55%), and efficient generation of reactive oxygen species. The lipocationic property of TACQ allows it to selectively accumulate in the mitochondria of cancer cells. TACQ can induce mitophagy and block mitophagic flux facilitating cancer cell apoptosis. Both in vitro and in vivo evaluations revealed that TACQ is an efficient theranostic agent for NIR fluorescence and photothermal imaging-guided synergistic chemo-photothermal and photodynamic therapy.

Molecular Engineering of Laser-Induced Graphene for Potential-Driven Broad-Spectrum Antimicrobial and Antiviral Applications.

Worldwide, countless deaths have been caused by the coronavirus disease 2019. In addition to the virus variants, an increasing number of fatal fungal infections have been reported, which further exacerbates the scenario. Therefore, the development of porous surfaces with both antiviral and antimicrobial capacities is of urgent need. Here, a cost-effective, nontoxic, and metal-free strategy is reported for the surface engineering of laser-induced graphene (LIG). The authors covalently engineer the surface potential of the LIG from -14 to ≈+35 mV (LIG+ ), enabling both high-efficiency antimicrobial and antiviral performance under mild conditions. Specifically, several candidate microorganisms of different types, including Escherichia coli, Streptomyces tenebrarius, and Candida albicans, are almost completely inactivated after 10-min solar irradiation. LIG+ also exhibits a strong antiviral effect against human coronaviruses: 99% HCoV-OC43 and 100% HCoV-229E inactivation are achieved after 20-min treatment. Such enhancement may also be observed against other types of pathogens that are heat-sensitive and oppositely charged. Besides, the covalent modification strategy alleviates the leaching problem, and the low cytotoxicity of LIG+ makes it advantageous. This study highlights the synergy of surface potential and photothermal effect in the inactivation of pathogens and it provides a direction for designing porous materials for airborne disease removal and water disinfection.

A Membrane-Targeting Photosensitizer with Aggregation-Induced Emission Characteristics for Highly Efficient Photodynamic Combat of Human Coronaviruses.

COVID-19 pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, has resulted in global social and economic disruption, putting the world economy to the largest global recession since the Great Depression. To control the spread of COVID-19, cutting off the transmission route is a critical step. In this work, the efficient inactivation of human coronavirus with photodynamic therapy (PDT) by employing photosensitizers with aggregation-induced emission characteristics (DTTPB) is reported. DTTPB is designed to bear a hydrophilic head and two hydrophobic tails, mimicking the structure of phospholipids on biological membranes. DTTPB demonstrates a broad absorption band covering the whole visible light range and high molar absorptivity, as well as excellent reactive oxygen species sensitizing ability, making it an excellent candidate for PDT. Besides, DTTPB can target membrane structure, and bind to the envelope of human coronaviruses. Upon light irradiation, DTTPB demonstrates highly effective antiviral behavior: human coronavirus treated with DTTPB and white-light irradiation can be efficiently inactivated with complete loss of infectivity, as revealed by the significant decrease of virus RNA and proteins in host cells. Thus, DTTPB sensitized PDT can efficiently prevent the infection and the spread of human coronavirus, which provides a new avenue for photodynamic combating of COVID-19.

Highly Efficient and Rapid Inactivation of Coronavirus on Non-Metal Hydrophobic Laser-Induced Graphene in Mild Conditions.

The prevalence of COVID-19 has caused global dysfunction in terms of public health, sustainability, and socio-economy. While vaccination shows potential in containing the spread, the development of surfaces that effectively reduces virus transmission and infectivity is also imperative, especially amid the early stage of the pandemic. However, most virucidal surfaces are operated under harsh conditions, making them impractical or potentially unsafe for long-term use. Here, it is reported that laser-induced graphene (LIG) without any metal additives shows marvelous antiviral capacities for coronavirus. Under low solar irradiation, the virucidal efficacy of the hydrophobic LIG (HLIG) against HCoV-OC43 and HCoV-229E can achieve 97.5% and 95%, respectively. The photothermal effect and the hydrophobicity of the HLIG synergistically contribute to the superior inactivation capacity. The stable antiviral performance of HLIG enables its multiple uses, showing advantages in energy saving and environmental protection. This work discloses a potential method for antiviral applications and has implications for the future development of antiviral materials.

Oxidative stress-induced mitophagy is suppressed by the miR-106b-93-25 cluster in a protective manner.

Increased reactive oxygen species levels in the mitochondrial matrix can induce Parkin-dependent mitophagy, which selectively degrades dysfunctional mitochondria via the autolysosome pathway. Phosphorylated mitofusin-2 (MFN2), a receptor of parkin RBR E3 ubiquitin-protein ligase (Parkin), interacts with Parkin to promote the ubiquitination of mitochondrial proteins; meanwhile, the mitophagy receptors Optineurin (OPTN) and nuclear dot protein 52 (NDP52) are recruited to damaged mitochondria to promote mitophagy. However, previous studies have not investigated changes in the levels of OPTN, MFN2, and NDP52 during Parkin-mediated mitophagy. Here, we show that mild and sustained hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) stimulation induces Parkin-dependent mitophagy accompanied by downregulation of the mitophagy-associated proteins OPTN, NDP52, and MFN2. We further demonstrate that H2O2 promotes the expression of the miR-106b-93-25 cluster and that miR-106b and miR-93 synergistically inhibit the translation of OPTN, NDP52, and MFN2 by targeting their 3' untranslated regions. We further reveal that compromised phosphorylation of MYC proto-oncogene protein (c-Myc) at threonine 58 (T58) (producing an unstable form of c-Myc) caused by reduced nuclear glycogen synthase kinase-3 beta (GSK3ß) levels contributes to the promotion of miR-106b-93-25 cluster expression upon H2O2 induction. Furthermore, miR-106b-mediated and miR-93-mediated inhibition of mitophagy-associated proteins (OPTN, MFN2, and NDP52) restrains cell death by controlling excessive mitophagy. Our data suggest that microRNAs (miRNAs) targeting mitophagy-associated proteins maintain cell survival, which is a novel mechanism of mitophagy control. Thus, our findings provide mechanistic insight into how miRNA-mediated regulation alters the biological process of mitophagy.

Advantages of a 21-loci short tandem repeat method for detection of cross-contamination in human cell lines.

Cross-contamination of cell lines is a highly relevant and pervasive problem. The analysis of short tandem repeats (STR) is a simple and commercially available technique to authenticate cell lines for more than two decades. At present, STR multiple amplification kits have been developed up to 21 loci while the current STR databases only provide 9-loci STR profiles. Here, we compared the advantages of 21-loci STR methodology using the same algorithm as 9-loci method. The 21-loci method reduced the uncertainty ratio for authentications by 97.5% relative to the 9-loci method and exclude effectively false positive. We show that the additional 12 loci helped to greatly reduce sample-site marker specificity arising from genetic isolation and the occurrence of null alleles, suggesting that inclusion of additional loci in these databases will ultimately improve the efficiency and accuracy of authentication of cell lines. Taken together, we demonstrate the utility of a 21-loci method in human cells, providing a novel marker panel for use as a valuable alternative to 9-loci analyses to minimize cell line authentication errors and reduce costs due to erroneous experiments.

Multiplexed detection and the establishment of a novel high-throughput method for human germ cell quality screening based on aggregation-induced emission.

We report a rapid, sensitive, and high-throughput method for quality control of human sperm cells and oocytes staining based on the aggregation-induced emission feature of the tetraphenylethylene-based luminogen (TPE-Ph-In), which is mitochondria-specific. Germ cells are evaluated to assess fertility and to facilitate assisted reproduction. In regular clinical practice, sperm quality is determined on the basis of visual examination and mathematical models of the sperm cell number, motility, and morphology. The maturation of the oocyte is crucial for the developmental competence of the resulting embryo. Human in vitro fertilization (IVF) have indicated that delaying insemination improves fertilization rates, presumably by allowing the completion of cytoplasmic maturation for those oocytes that have not completely matured at the time. Therefore, a more reliable method to determine germ cell quality is needed. The mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) of spermatozoa reflects the function and status of those cells. In oocytes, the distribution of mitochondria indicates the readiness of the cell for fertilization. Aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) have good biocompatibility and photostability and produce low levels of background signal. There are about 100,000 mitochondria per fully-grown human oocyte. Mitochondria in mammalian oocytes are spherical with little cristae, supplying large scale of ATP for embryo development. Here, we expanded the use of TPE-Ph-Into determine germ cell quality on the basis of the MMP and the intracellular distribution of mitochondria. We stained clinical sperm samples from 36 patients with infertility, as well as four oocytes, with TPE-Ph-In and examined the cells by confocal microscopy and cell sorting analysis. Our results showed a positive correlation between the MMP and sperm cell motility, as well as the different distribution of mitochondria in oocyte. Thus, staining with TPE-Ph-In could be used to quickly determine germ cell quality in vivo, bringing new possibilities for applications of AIEgens in biomedical research and clinical trials.

The Biological Applications of Two Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens.

Fluorescence imaging, as a commonly used scientific tool, is widely applied in various biomedical and material structures through visualization technology. Highly selective and sensitive luminescent biological probes, as well as those with good water solubility, are urgently needed for biomedical research. In contrast to the traditional aggregation-caused quenching of fluorescence, in the unique phenomenon of aggregation-induced emission (AIE), the individual luminogens have extremely weak or no emissivity because they each have free intramolecular motion; however, when they form aggregates, these components immediately "light up". Since the discovery of "turn-on" mechanism, researchers have been studying and applying AIE in a variety of fields to develop more sensitive, selective, and efficient strategies for the AIE dyes. There are numerous advantages to the use of AIE-based methods, including low background interference, strong contrast, high performance in intracellular imaging, and the ability for long-term monitoring in vivo. In this review, two typical examples of AIEgens, TPE-Cy and TPE-Ph-In, are described, including their structure properties and applications. Recent progress in the biological applications is mainly focused on. Undoubtedly, in the near future, an increasing number of encouraging and practical ideas will promote the development of more AIEgens for broad use in biomedical applications.