Abstract
Three four-arm amphiphilic block copolymers with different chain lengths, consisting of a hydrophilic chain of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and hydrophobic segment of polycaprolactam (PCL), were synthesized and used to encapsulate the high-efficient and hydrophobic oxygen probe of platinum(II)-5,10,15,20-tetrakis-(2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorophenyl)-porphyrin (PtTFPP) to form polymer micelles. This approach enabled the use of PtTFPP in aqueous solution for biosensing. Experimental results demonstrated that the particle sizes of these nano-oxygen sensors between 40.0 and 203.8 nm depend on the structures of block copolymers. PtTFPP in these micelles showed an effective quantum yield under nitrogen environment, ranging from 0.06 to 0.159. The new sensors are suitable for analyzing dissolved oxygen concentrations in the range of 0.04–39.3 mg/L by using the linear Stern–Volmer equation at room temperature. In addition, it has been shown that these sensors are capable of in situ monitoring the dissolved oxygens in the culture medium of E. coli and Romas cells during the respiration process, and distinguishing the drug activity of antibiotic ampicillin from that of antimycin A. This study showed that the use of these nanostructured multi-arm block copolymer micelles can achieve efficient biological applications without specific structural modification of the hydrophobic PtTFPP probe, which is expected to have broad prospects.
Highlights
Oxygen is vital to life [1,2]
Multi-arm amphiphilic block copolymers were prepared, and their micelles were used to encapsulate PtTFPP to enable the use of PtTFPP for oxygen sensing in biological conditions
The micelles prepared by using these block copolymers were around 40 to 200 nm, depending on the molar ratios of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic segments in the block copolymers
Summary
Oxygen is vital to life [1,2]. It plays a crucial role in the fields of the environment [3,4,5], industry [6,7], agriculture [8], biology [9,10,11], and health [12,13]. An adult man cannot survive for more than 10 min without oxygen. Hypoxia [15] refers to a condition in which a body or a region of the body lacks sufficient oxygen supply at the tissue level, which may lead to a series of physiological and pathological consequences, and even lead to cell death [16]. Studies have shown that hypoxia changes cell behavior and is associated with extracellular matrix remodeling and increased migration
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