Are Fluorescent Organic Nanoparticles Relevant Tools for Tracking Cancer Cells or Macrophages?

Abstract

Artículo de publicación ISISin acceso a texto completoStrongly solvatochromic fluorophores are devised, containing alkyl chains and enable to selfassemble as very bright fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) in water (Phi(f) = 0.28). The alkyl chains impart each fluorophore with strongly hydrophobic surroundings, causing distinct emission colors between FONs where the fluorophores are associated, and their disassembled state. Such color change is harnessed to assess the long-term fate of FONs in both cancer cells and monocytes/macrophages. Disintegration of the orange-emitting FONs by monocytes/macrophages is evidenced through the formation of micrometer green-yellowish emitting vesicles. By contrast, cancer cells retain longer the integrity of organic nanoparticles. In both cases, no significant toxicity is detected, making FONs as valuable bioimaging agents for cell tracking with weak risks of deleterious accumulation and low degradation rate.Region des Pays de la Loire 2010-07543 0756

Small Molecule‐Based Fluorescent Organic Nanoassemblies with Strong Hydrogen Bonding Networks for Fine Tuning and Monitoring Drug Delivery in Cancer Cells

“…This observation indicates that FONs structurally evolved due to the modification of the fluorophore surroundings. Previous studies involving strongly solvatochromic fluorophores constituting FONs let us suggest that FONs dissociate in contact with the phospholipids of the endosome membrane instead of the cytoplasmic membrane . In the latter case, FONs would have dissolved and stained the cytoplasmic membrane, which is actually not observed and contradicts the dot‐like spreading of FONs inside the cells after uptake.…”

“…This observation echoes with previous reports on the dissembling of FONs made of solvatochromic fluorophores after cell internalization. [35a] Since BDZ units exhibit strong solvatochromism in emission, from yellow in lipophilic media to red in polar media ( Figure ), we propose that the green color arises from partial dissolution of dox/cp‐BDZ FONs into individual fluorophores. In this way, doxorubicin release occurs out of the endosomes where FON blends accumulated, as previously proved with similar architectures …”

Reducing aggregation caused quenching effect through co-assembly of PAH chromophores and molecular barriers

“…This result further encourages us to investigate more polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) chromophores (perylene and pyrene, Per and Pyr for short) because most of them have low PLQYs in solid (known as ACQ effect). Moreover, it is very important to reduce the sizes of fluorescent cocrystals to micro/nanoscales, because such nano/micromaterials can have huge potential applications in optoelectronic fields and bioimaging due to their good biocompatibility, easily surface modification with functional molecules 41–44 , and readily accumulating in most disease regions 45–51 .…”

Organic Fluorescent Dye-based Nanomaterials: Advances in the Rational Design for Imaging and Sensing Applications

“…Using highly solvatochromic push-pull chromophores allows tracking the dynamics of the fluorescent nanoparticles upon their interaction with the biological systems. Organic dyes based on diphenylamine and cyanophenylethylene as donor and acceptor, respectively, have been reported to exhibit significant hypsochromic emission shift upon their self-assembly, compared to their orange-red fluorescence in bulk solutions in polar organic solvents [76]. The emission further shifts towards short wavelengths upon the aggregates disassembly and the dye localization into less polar environments.…”