Biocompatible and noncytotoxic nucleoside-based AIEgens sensor for lighting-up nucleic acids

Abstract

Aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) have been used in biomacromolecules detection. Herein, TPE-dC and TPE-dU acted as the nucleoside-based AIEgens sensors in the first case, which can be used to detect ctDNA and rRNA in vitro and light up the nucleus in vivo depending on the intermolecular binding affinity. This AIE process enables the quantitative analysis or visualization of nucleic acids in solution or gels state, respectively. Furthermore, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) images of L929 cells stained with TPE-dC or TPE-dU clearly shows that nucleoside-based AIEgens bio-probes can pass the cell membranes to reach the cell nucleus, without cytotoxicity at the imaging condition (incubation time > 12 h, and 10 μmol/L of concentration). Since the nucleus is rich in DNA/RNA, fluorescence turn-on mode has a great potential in nucleus imaging and clinical diagnosis.