Multicolor monitoring of cellular organelles by single wavelength excitation to visualize the mitophagy process

Abstract

Two AIEgens are designed for tracking mitochondria and lysosomes with different emission colors using single wavelength excitation to visualize the mitophagy process.

Organic Mitoprobes based on Fluorogens with Aggregation‐Induced Emission

“…[59] As shown in Figure 2B, TPE is greenish blue emissive with a emission peak at 460 nm. For example, after introducing two electron donating methoxy groups, TPE-IQ, TPECN, TPE-Py were turned to TPE-IQ-2O, [62] TPECM, [63] AIE-Red, [64] respectively. The decoration of electron withdrawing groups can also red shift the emissions of TPE-based AIEgens.…”

“…[17] Thus, apart from imaging mitochondria alone, one of the most important applications of AIE mitoprobes is to monitor the mitochondria related bioprocess. [64] AIE-Red could efficiently stain mitochondria without interfering the staining of lysosome by AIE-Green, which excels the interference problem that commercial dyes sometimes encounter during co-stain of cells. [64] AIE-Red could efficiently stain mitochondria without interfering the staining of lysosome by AIE-Green, which excels the interference problem that commercial dyes sometimes encounter during co-stain of cells.…”

“…Furthermore, the integration of both electron donating and withdrawing groups can lead to more red-shifted AIEgens due to the formation of donor-acceptor structures. For example, after introducing two electron donating methoxy groups, TPE-IQ, TPECN, TPE-Py were turned to TPE-IQ-2O, [62] TPECM, [63] AIE-Red, [64] respectively. And their emission peaks are red-shifted from 502 nm, 564 nm, 600 nm to 620 nm, 600 nm, 660 nm, respectively.…”

“…Recently, we reported a red-emissive AIE mitoprobe, AIE-Red ( Figure 5A, l em = 665 nm), which could cooperate with another green-emissive AIE lysosome tracker, AIE-Green ( Figure 5A, l em = 538 nm), to monitor the mitophagy process. [64] AIE-Red could efficiently stain mitochondria without interfering the staining of lysosome by AIE-Green, which excels the interference problem that commercial dyes sometimes encounter during co-stain of cells. Meanwhile, it exhibits extremely high photostability and low cytotoxicity towards mitochondria upon laser irradiation.…”

High‐Fidelity Trapping of Spatial–Temporal Mitochondria with Rational Design of Aggregation‐Induced Emission Probes

“…To attain this goal, taking the strategy of aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) is preferential to design organelle‐specific “ light‐up ” fluorescent probes . Particularly, in light of accumulating 100–1000 folds of cations in mitochondrial membrane matrix with respect to extracellular medium, the feature of AIE luminogen (AIEgen) is well suited for high‐fidelity trapping of mitochondria, which can emit strong fluorescence during the process of concentration enrichment in mitochondria . However, their applicability is somewhat limited by uncovering the relationship between lipophilicity and electrostaticity during the aggregation process.…”