南开大学丁丹团队报道了通过引入扭曲的分子几何结构放大激活的近红外余辉发光，以研究中性粒细胞相关疾病。相关研究成果发表在2022年1月20日出版的《美国化学会杂志》。

了解中性粒细胞相关疾病（如急性炎症）的机制和进展非常重要。然而，现有的分析方法既不能实现实时监测，也不能提供病理过程中的动态信息。

该文中，研究人员设计并合成了一种过氧亚硝酸盐（ONOO-）和环境pH双响应余辉发光纳米探针。在生理pH条件下，在ONOO-存在下，纳米探针显示出激活的近红外余辉发光，其强度和持续时间可以通过在系统中引入具有扭曲分子几何结构的聚集诱导发射（AIE）效应而得到高度增强。

使用三种患病动物模型进行的体内研究表明，纳米探针能够敏感地揭示急性皮肤炎症的发展过程，包括首次到达的中性粒细胞浸润和酸化起始时间，快速准确地区分过敏和炎症，快速筛选能诱导免疫原性细胞死亡的抗肿瘤药物。

该研究提供了一种替代方法和先进的探针，能够实时精确监测疾病。

附：英文原文

Title: Amplification of Activated Near-Infrared Afterglow Luminescence by Introducing Twisted Molecular Geometry for Understanding Neutrophil-Involved Diseases

Author: Chao Chen, Heqi Gao, Hanlin Ou, Ryan T. K. Kwok, Youhong Tang, Donghui Zheng, Dan Ding

Issue&Volume: January 20, 2022

Abstract: Understanding the mechanism and progression of neutrophil-involved diseases (e.g., acute inflammation) is of great importance. However, current available analytical methods neither achieve the real-time monitoring nor provide dynamic information during the pathological processes. Herein, a peroxynitrite (ONOO–) and environmental pH dual-responsive afterglow luminescent nanoprobe is designed and synthesized. In the presence of ONOO– at physiological pH, the nanoprobes show activated near-infrared afterglow luminescence, whose intensity and lasting time can be highly enhanced by introducing the aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect with a twisted molecular geometry into the system. In vivo studies using three diseased animal models demonstrate that the nanoprobes can sensitively reveal the development process of acute skin inflammation including infiltration of first arrived neutrophils and acidification initiating time, make a fast and accurate discrimination between allergy and inflammation, and rapidly screen the antitumor drugs capable of inducing immunogenic cell death. This work provides an alternative approach and advanced probes permitting precise disease monitoring in real time.

DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c11455

Source: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.1c11455