Hydrogen Peroxide-Responsive AIE Probe for Imaging-Guided Organelle Targeting and Photodynamic Cancer Cell Ablation

Abstract

Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), as one kind of key reactive oxygen species (ROS), is mainly produced endogenously primarily in the mitochondria. The selective monitoring of H2O2 in living cells is of great significance for understanding diagnosis and pathogenesis of cancers, the Alzheimer’s disease and diabetes. Here, we constructed a versatile AIE probe, TTPy-H2O2, which achieved superb performances in the specifically visualization of H2O2 specifically in various living cells with mitochondria targeting, excellent biocompatibility and photostability, and remarkable ROS generation ability. Red/near-infrared fluorescence firstly located in the mitochondria could light up lipid droplets with bright yellow fluorescence after responding to the H2O2, which can realize both imaging and photodynamic therapy (PDT) for cancer therapy. <br>