Monitoring Cell Plasma Membrane Polarity by a NIR Fluorescence Probe with Unexpected Cell Plasma Membrane-Targeting Ability

Jiaojiao Liu; Mei Liu; Fancheng Meng; Jiajia Lv; Mingyan Yang; Jie Gao; Gang Wei; Zeli Yuan; Hongyu Li

doi:10.1021/acsomega.2c05997

Monitoring Cell Plasma Membrane Polarity by a NIR Fluorescence Probe with Unexpected Cell Plasma Membrane-Targeting Ability

ACS Omega. 2022 Dec 9;7(50):46891-46899. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.2c05997. eCollection 2022 Dec 20.

Authors

Jiaojiao Liu^{1

2

3}, Mei Liu^{1

2

3}, Fancheng Meng^{1

2

3}, Jiajia Lv^{1

2

3}, Mingyan Yang^{1

2

3}, Jie Gao^{1

2

3}, Gang Wei⁴, Zeli Yuan^{1

2

3}, Hongyu Li^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ College of Pharmacy, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563003, Guizhou, China.
² Key Laboratory of Basic Pharmacology of Ministry of Education and Joint International Research Laboratory of Ethnomedicine of Ministry of Education, Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi 563000, Guizhou, China.
³ Guizhou International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base for Medical Photo-Theranostics Technology and Innovative Drug Development, Zunyi 563003, Guizhou, China.
⁴ Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Manufacturing, Lindfield, New South Wales 2070, Australia.

Abstract

The cell plasma membrane, the natural barrier of a cell, plays critical roles in a mass of cell physiological and pathological processes. Therefore, revealing and monitoring the local status of the cell plasma membrane are of great significance. Herein, using a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence probe BTCy, microenvironmental polarity in the cell plasma membrane was in situ monitored. BTCy showed sensitive and selective fluorescence decrease response at 706 nm with the increase of polarity as its polarity-responsive D-π-A structure. Most importantly, BTCy showed unexpected cell plasma membrane-targeting ability, probably due to its amphiphilic structure. With BTCy, the distinguishing imaging of cancer and normal cells was done, in which cancer cells exhibited significantly stronger signals due to their lower cell plasma membrane polarity. In addition, with the imaging of BTCy, the ferroptosis process was revealed with no significant cell plasma membrane polarity variation for the first time. Furthermore, BTCy was employed for in vivo imaging of tumor tissue in the 4T1-tumor-bearing mice. The polarity-responsive and cell plasma membrane-targeting properties of BTCy make it a useful tool for monitoring cell plasma membrane polarity variation, providing an efficient and simple method for tumor diagnosis.