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Lipid‐PEG‐Folate Encapsulated Nanoparticles with Aggregation Induced Emission Characteristics: Cellular Uptake Mechanism and Two‐Photon Fluorescence Imaging
Author(s) -
Geng Junlong,
Li Kai,
Ding Dan,
Zhang Xinhai,
Qin Wei,
Liu Jianzhao,
Tang Ben Zhong,
Liu Bin
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201200814
Subject(s) - fluorescence , endocytosis , fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy , biophysics , nanoparticle , in vivo , absorption (acoustics) , two photon excitation microscopy , preclinical imaging , photochemistry , aggregation induced emission , chemistry , excited state , peg ratio , cytotoxicity , materials science , nanotechnology , in vitro , cell , biochemistry , optics , economics , composite material , physics , microbiology and biotechnology , finance , biology , nuclear physics
Folate functionalized nanoparticles (NPs) that contain fluorogens with aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) characteristics are fabricated to show bright far‐red/near‐infrared fluorescence, a large two‐photon absorption cross section and low cytotoxicity, which are internalized into MCF‐7 cancer cells mainly through caveolae‐mediated endocytosis. One‐photon excited in vivo fluorescence imaging illustrates that these AIE NPs can accumulate in a tumor and two‐photon excited ex vivo tumor tissue imaging reveals that they can be easily detected in the tumor mass at a depth of 400 μm. These studies indicate that AIE NPs are promising alternatives to conventional TPA probes for biological imaging.