Covalent incorporation of metalloporphyrin in luminescent polymer dot transducer for continuous glucose monitoring

• Published in: Journal of luminescence 2022-11, Vol.251, p.119202, Article 119202
• Main Authors: Liu, Siyang, Fang, Xiaofeng, Mi, Feixue, Sun, Kai, Wu, Changfeng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Continuous glucose monitoring; Dye-linked polymer dots; Glucose transducer
• ISSN: 0022-2313; 1872-7883
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jlumin.2022.119202

Luminescent dye-doped polymer dots (Pdots) have been demonstrated for various biosensing applications. However, the dye doping strategy may suffer from dye aggregation and dye leaching issues which limit the long-term sensor performance. Here, we show that covalent incorporation of metalloporphyrin in polyfluorene backbone for continuous glucose monitoring. The resulting polymer was used to develop luminescent Pdots transducer that overcome the dye-aggregation problem. We characterized the spectroscopic properties of the metalloporphyrin covalently-linked Pdots, which showed reduced batch-to-batch variation, enhanced intra-particle energy transfer, and improved luminescence stability as compared to the metalloporphyrin-doped Pdots. After bioconjugation with glucose oxidase (GOx), the oxygen-sensitive phosphorescence is highly sensitive to glucose variations. The metalloporphyrin-linked Pdots transducer showed good performance in long-term continuous glucose monitoring in mouse models. This work demonstrates that covalent incorporation of porphyrin dyes in Pdots transducer is a reliable strategy to improve their stability and reproducibility for long-term continuous glucose monitoring in vivo. •Preparation of metalloporphyrin covalently linked Pdot transducer. The Pdot transducer was developed with metalloporphyrin covalently linked in the polymer backbone for glucose monitoring applications.•Excellent stability and reproducibility. Covalent incorporation method overcomes the dye-aggregation problem. The metalloporphyrin-linked Pdots showed reduced batch-to-batch variation, improved nanoparticle stability, and enhanced intra-particle energy transfer as compared to the metalloporphyrin-doped Pdots.•Great performance in long-term continuous glucose monitoring. The luminescence response of the metalloporphyrin-linked Pdot transducer closely correlated with the blood glucose change of mice for weeks, exhibiting excellent performance in long-term continuous glucose monitoring.