One-step synthesis, self-assembly and bioimaging applications of adenosine triphosphate containing amphiphilies with aggregation-induced emission feature

Abstract

Amphiphilic molecules with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics have attracted intensive interest for biological imaging applications for their self-assembly into nanostructures and obvious enhanced fluorescence intensity in aqueous solution. Although many AIE-active fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) have been fabricated recently, the direct linkage of hydrophilic small molecules and hydrophobic AIE dyes has rarely been reported. In this work, we reported a one-pot strategy for preparation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) containing molecules that conjugated the amino group of ATP and aldehyde-terminated AIE dye (PhCHO) based on mercaptoacetic acid locking imine (MALI) reaction. These AIE-active ATP-PhCHO showed amphiphilic properties and could self-assemble into micelles, which displayed high water dispersibility, strong yellow fluorescence, good biocompatibility and biological imaging capability. These advantages make ATP-PhCHO FONs promising for biomedical applications.