Near-infrared AIEgens for sulfatase imaging in breast cancer in vivo.

ABSTRACT

Aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) enable highly sensitive and in situ visualization of sulfatase to benefit the early diagnosis of breast cancer (BC), but current sulfatase AIEgens always emit visible light (<650 nm). Herein, a near-infrared (NIR) AIEgen QMT-SFA is developed for sulfatase imaging in vivo. Hydrophilic QMT-SFA is cleaved by sulfatase to yield hydrophobic QMT-OH, which subsequently aggregates into nanoparticles to turn the AIE fluorescence "on", enabling sensitive sulfatase imaging in 4T1 cells and mouse models.