Self-Assembled Supramolecular Nanoprobes for Ratiometric Fluorescence Measurement of Intracellular pH Values

摘要

Self-assembly of small building blocks into functional supramolecular nanostructure has opened prospects for the design of novel materials. With this molecular engineering strategy, we have developed self-assembled supramolecular nanoprobes (SSNPs) for ratiometric fluorescence measurement of pH values in cells. The nanoprobes with a diameter of similar to 30 nm could be formulated just by mixing pH-sensitive adamantanefluorescein (Ad-F) and pH-insensitive adamantaneRhodamine B (Ad-R) with beta-cyclodextrin polymer (poly-beta-CD) at one time. The nanoprobes with good biocompatibility have been successfully applied to measure intracellular pH in the pH range of 48 and estimate pH fluctuations associated with different stimuli in cells. Moreover, we expect that this self-assembled approach is applicable to the construction of nanoprobes for other targets in cells just by replacing the respective indicator dyes with relevant indicators.