Achieving metal-free phosphorescence in dilute solutions for imaging hypoxia in cells and tumors

Peng Li; Yurong Guo; Yan Jia; Hongwei Guan; Chao Wang; Zibo Wu; Shuqing Sun; Zongjin Qu; Panwang Zhou; Guangjiu Zhao

doi:10.1039/D1QM00733E

Achieving metal-free phosphorescence in dilute solutions for imaging hypoxia in cells and tumors†

Peng Li,‡^a Yurong Guo,‡^b Yan Jia,‡^c Hongwei Guan,^a Chao Wang,

^b Zibo Wu,^b Shuqing Sun,^b Zongjin Qu,^a Panwang Zhou

*^a and Guangjiu Zhao

*^b

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* Corresponding authors

^a Institute of Molecular Sciences and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao 266237, China
E-mail: pwzhou@sdu.edu.cn

^b Tianjin Key Laboratory of Molecular Optoelectronic Sciences, Department of Chemistry, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300354, China
E-mail: gjzhao@tju.edu.cn

^c State Key Laboratory of Molecular Reaction Dynamics, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Dalian 116023, China

Abstract

The imaging of hypoxia in tumors by metal-free organic phosphors has long been a challenge due to the lack of molecules capable of phosphorescing efficiently in their dilute solutions. Herein, a new strategy for designing phosphorescent molecules was provided by building selenium-based intramolecular charge transfer systems to address this issue. The results showed that molecules based on this strategy exhibited efficient phosphorescence even in solutions, showed very low cytotoxicity to cells and can be successfully applied to image hypoxia in cells and tumors. In addition, the mechanism responsible for the efficient phosphorescence was investigated by the combination use of transient absorption spectra and theoretical calculations.

This article is part of the themed collection: FOCUS: Recent progress on bioimaging technologies

Materials Chemistry Frontiers

Achieving metal-free phosphorescence in dilute solutions for imaging hypoxia in cells and tumors†

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Achieving metal-free phosphorescence in dilute solutions for imaging hypoxia in cells and tumors

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