Cell membrane-targeting NIR fluorescent probes with large Stokes shifts for ultralong-term transplanted neural stem cell tracking

Abstract

There is an emerging therapeutic strategy to transplant stem cells into diseased host tissue for various neurodegenerative diseases, owing to their self-renewal ability and pluripotency. However, the traceability of long-term transplanted cells limits the further understanding of the mechanism of the therapy. Herein, we designed and synthesized a quinoxalinone scaffold-based near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe named QSN, which exhibits ultra-strong photostability, large Stokes shift, and cell membrane-targeting capacity. It could be found that QSN-labeled human embryonic stem cells showed strong fluorescent emission and photostability both in vitro and in vivo. Additionally, QSN would not impair the pluripotency of embryonic stem cells, indicating that QSN did not perform cytotoxicity. Moreover, it is worth mentioning that QSN-labeled human neural stem cells held cellular retention for at least 6 weeks in the mouse brain striatum post transplantation. All these findings highlight the potential application of QSN for ultralong-term transplanted cell tracking.

A wash-free fluorescent probe with a large Stokes shift for the identification of NAFL through tracing the change of lipid droplets

“…It should be noted that the Stokes shift of probe LD-HWZ ranges from 131 nm to 177 nm especially in PBS solvent (up to 177 nm) (Table S1†), and there is basically no spectral overlap between the absorption and emission wavelengths of this probe, which greatly reduces the self-absorption effect of the fluorescent probe, thus achieving a high signal-to-noise ratio. 24…”

Fluorescence-Based Mono- and Multimodal Imaging for In Vivo Tracking of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

“…The fluorescence signals by DiD-labeled haMSCs were observable for 10 weeks in osteoarthritis-induced knee joints when they were injected intra-articularly, while no fluorescence was visible in other organs due to their specific localization. Meanwhile, J. Chen et al synthesized a novel quinoxalinone-based near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent dye (QSN) and used it for human neural stem cell (hNSC) labeling [75]. QSN strongly targeted cell membranes while barely binding to other organelles, and it exhibited intensive NIR emission, outstanding photostability, and photobleaching resistance.…”

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