Temperature plays a crucial role in many biological processes. Accurate temperature determination is important for diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Autofluorescence is an unavoidable interference in luminescent bioimaging. Hence, a large amount of research works has been devoted to reducing background autofluorescence and improving signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) in biodetection. Herein, a dual‐emissive phosphorescent polymeric thermometer has been developed by incorporating two long‐lived phosphorescent iridium(III) complexes into an acrylamide‐based thermosensitive polymer. Upon increasing temperature, this polymer undergoes coil‐globule transition, which leads to a decrease in polarity of the microenvironment surrounding the iridium(III) complexes and hence brings about emission enhancement of both complexes. Owing to their different sensitivity to surrounding environment, the emission intensity ratio of the two complexes is correlated to the temperature. Thus, the polymer has been used for temperature determination in vitro and in vivo via ratiometric luminescence imaging. More importantly, by using the long‐lived phosphorescence of the polymer, temperature mapping in zebrafish has been demonstrated successfully with minimized autofluorescence interference and improved SNR via time‐resolved luminescence imaging. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example to use photoluminescent thermometer for in vivo temperature sensing.

Coetzee. Consequences of cardiac myocyte-specific ablation of KATP channels in transgenic mice expressing dominant negative Kir6 subunits.

Chronic hepatic encephalopathy (CHE) is a major complication in patients with severe liver disease. Elevated blood and brain ammonia levels have been implicated in its pathogenesis, and astrocytes are the principal neural cells involved in this disorder. Since defective synthesis and release of astrocytic factors have been shown to impair synaptic integrity in other neurological conditions, we examined whether thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), an astrocytic factor involved in the maintenance of synaptic integrity, is also altered in CHE. Cultured astrocytes were exposed to ammonia (NH4Cl, 0.5–2.5 mM) for 1–10 days, and TSP-1 content was measured in cell extracts and culture media. Astrocytes exposed to ammonia exhibited a reduction in intra- and extracellular TSP-1 levels. Exposure of cultured neurons to conditioned media (CM) from ammonia-treated astrocytes showed a decrease in synaptophysin, PSD95 and synaptotagmin levels. CM from TSP-1 overexpressing astrocytes that were treated with ammonia, when added to cultured neurons, reversed the decline in synaptic proteins. Recombinant TSP-1 similarly reversed the decrease in synaptic proteins. Metformin, an agent known to increase TSP-1 synthesis in other cell types also reversed the ammonia-induced TSP-1 reduction. Likewise, we found a significant decline in TSP-1 level in cortical astrocytes, as well as a reduction in synaptophysin content in vivo in a rat model of CHE. These findings suggest that TSP-1 may represent an important therapeutic target for CHE.

A luminophore integrating aggregation-induced delayed fluorescence and room-temperature phosphorescence for time-resolved luminescence imaging.

Gold nanorods (AuNR) have been intensively used in nanomedicine for cancer diagnostics and therapy, due to their excellent plasmonic photothermal properties. Tuning the size and aspect ratio of AuNR tailors the localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) in the NIR spectrum at which biological tissues are transparent, thus enables specific and effective treatment. The AuNR extravasates into tumor interstitium through enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect. Efficient AuNR based cancer therapy requires efficient AuNR tumor delivery. However, the size of AuNR can dramatically affect its blood circulation and tumor accumulation. Here we proposed for the first time a systematic framework to investigate the size-dependent kinetics of AuNRs during EPR mediated tumor delivery. By using 64Cu-labeled AuNRs with positron emission tomography (PET) and kinetic modeling, the in vivo uptake and kinetics of 64Cu-AuNR during its blood circulation, tumor accumulation and elimination were studied both in vitro and in vivo. The results of different sized AuNRs were compared and the optimum size of AuNR was suggested for EPR mediated tumor delivery. Our study provides a better understanding of the in vivo behavior of AuNR, which can help future design of nanomaterials for cancer imaging and therapy.