Recently, fluorescent
macromolecules with AIE effect have attracted
considerable attentions due to their remarkable optical properties.
In particular, designing novel tetraphenylethylene (TPE)-based bioconjugates
to construct various self-assembled nanostructures and to expand the
applications have aroused great interests. Herein, we report the self-assembly
of TPE-based amphiphilic glycopolypeptide bioconjugate for bioimaging
and tracing of live cells. The resultant amphiphilic fluorescent glycopolypeptide
P1tM-TPE could self-assemble into different nanostructures, including
vesicles, spindles and porous nanosheets, which mainly depends on
the water fraction in DMSO/water mixture. At the same time, the vesicles
can transform to spindles when increasing the water fractions. Both
the vesicles and spindles are prone to be effectively internalized
by macrophages, and all of them performed outstanding intracellular
fluorescent retention properties. As far as we know, this is the first
report on self-assembly and applications of glycopolypeptide–TPE
bioconjugate, which will deepen our understanding on the self-assembly
mechanism of TPE-based bioconjugates and provide a new way for fabricating
functional fluorescent materials to monitor various biological processes.