AIE聚合物纳米粒子的制备及其细胞示踪应用

Preparation of the Polymer Nanoparticles with Aggregation-Induced Emission(AIE)and Its Cell Tracing Application

水溶性聚集诱导发光 (AIE) 聚合物纳米材料,作为一类新兴的智能材料,具有独特的光学性能、环境刺激响应性和优良的生物相容性,已广泛应用于生物光学成像等领域。本研究首先合成具有AIE发光性质的原子转移自由基聚合(ATRP)引发剂TPE-BMP,然后通过ATRP活性聚合方法,成功制备两亲性聚合物TPE-PAA,再自组装构筑出粒径约为200nm具有AIE发光特性的pH响应性球形纳米粒子TPE-PAA NP。研究结果表明:TPE-PAA NP具有优异的水溶性、良好的分散性、尺寸稳定性及优异的AIE发光特性,且其溶液荧光对环境pH表现出快速敏感响应性能。同时,经TPE-PAA NP染色后的细胞存活率保持在95%以上,表明该纳米粒子具有低的细胞毒性,并能够有效示踪HeLa细胞增殖至9代以上,有望作为一种活细胞荧光示踪探针材料。

In recent years, water-soluble aggregation-induced emission (AIE) polymer nanomaterials, as a new kind of intelligent materials, have great advantages in the fields of life science research because of their unique optical properties, environmental stimulus response and excellent biocompatibility. In this study, a new atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) initiator (TPE-BMP) with aggregation induced luminescence (AIE) properties was synthesized, and then the amphiphilic polymer TPE-PAA was successfully prepared by a method of ATRP active polymerization. Then, the pH responsive and AIE-active spherical nanoparticles TPE-PAA NP with a particle size of about 200nm were formed by a self-assembling process. The results show that TPE-PAA NP possesses excellent water solubility, good dispersion, dimensional stability and excellent AIE luminescence characteristics, and its solution fluorescence shows rapid sensitivity to environmental pH. More importantly, the fluorescent signals were significantly strong in HeLa cells after cells were incubated with TPE-PAA for 24h based on the characteristic of AIE fluorescence and low cytotoxicity. TPE-PAA NP could be internalized by the cancer cells and effectively track the HeLa cells for as long as 9 passages. So TPE-PAA NP was expected to be used as a fluorescent tracer probe material for living cells.