One-step synthesis, self-assembly and bioimaging applications of adenosine triphosphate containing amphiphilies with aggregation-induced emission feature

•Synthesis of AIE-active fluorescent organic nanoparticles through multicomponent reaction•The multicomponent reaction is very effective and simple.•These AIE-active FONs possess good water dispersibility and biocompatibility.•These AIE-active FONs are promising for biomedical applications.

Amphiphilic molecules with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics have attracted intensive interest for biological imaging applications for their self-assembly into nanostructures and obvious enhanced fluorescence intensity in aqueous solution. Although many AIE-active fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) have been fabricated recently, the direct linkage of hydrophilic small molecules and hydrophobic AIE dyes has rarely been reported. In this work, we reported a one-pot strategy for preparation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) containing molecules that conjugated the amino group of ATP and aldehyde-terminated AIE dye (PhCHO) based on mercaptoacetic acid locking imine (MALI) reaction. These AIE-active ATP-PhCHO showed amphiphilic properties and could self-assemble into micelles, which displayed high water dispersibility, strong yellow fluorescence, good biocompatibility and biological imaging capability. These advantages make ATP-PhCHO FONs promising for biomedical applications.

Graphical abstractA simple one-pot multicomponent reaction has been developed for the fabrication of fluorescent organic dyes with aggregation-induced emission feature via direct conjugation of organic dye and adenosine triphosphate.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (206 K)Download as PowerPoint slide