Fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) based nanoparticles composed of AIE luminogens and NIR dyes with enhanced three-photon near-infrared emission for in vivo brain angiography

Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence is very important for high-contrast biological imaging of high-scattering tissues such as brain tissue. Unfortunately, commercial NIR dyes are excited usually by visible light, and their multi-photon absorption (MPA) cross-sections are small. Here, we design new co-e...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nanoscale 2018, Vol.10 (21), p.10025-10032
Main Authors: Liu, Wen, Wang, Yalun, Han, Xiao, Lu, Ping, Zhu, Liang, Sun, Chaowei, Qian, Jun, He, Sailing
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorption cross sections
Angiography
Animals
Blood vessels
Brain
Brain - diagnostic imaging
Cell Line, Tumor
Dyes
Emission
Encapsulation
Energy transfer
Female
Fluorescence
Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer
Fluorescent Dyes
Humans
Image reconstruction
Mice
Mice, Inbred ICR
Nanoparticles
Near infrared radiation
Photon absorption
Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared
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Summary:Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence is very important for high-contrast biological imaging of high-scattering tissues such as brain tissue. Unfortunately, commercial NIR dyes are excited usually by visible light, and their multi-photon absorption (MPA) cross-sections are small. Here, we design new co-encapsulated NIR nanoparticles (NPs) with a large three-photon (3PA) absorption cross-section. A form of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogen (AIEgen), 2,3-bis(4'-(diphenylamino)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4-yl) fumaronitrile (TPATCN), is introduced as the donor, and a form of NIR dye, silicon 2,3-naphthalocyanine bis-(trihexylsilyloxide) (NIR775), is adopted as the acceptor. Under the excitation of a 1550 nm fs laser, TPATCN-NIR775 NPs demonstrated a bright three-photon fluorescence centered at 785 nm. The energy transfer efficiency of the TPATCN-NIR775 NPs was calculated to be as high as 90%, which could be attributed to the good spectral overlap between the emission of TPATCN and the absorption of NIR775. By injection with TPATCN-NIR775 NPs, a vivid 3D reconstruction of mouse brain vasculature was obtained with even small blood vessels clearly visualized. The design strategy used for the co-encapsulated AIE-NIR NPs would be helpful in synthesizing more NIR probes for deep-tissue biological imaging in the future.
ISSN:2040-3364
2040-3372
2040-3372
DOI:10.1039/c8nr00066b