An AIE-active near-infrared molecular probe for migrasome labeling

Abstract

Migrasomes, newly identified organelles, play crucial roles in various physiological and pathological activities, including embryogenesis, immune responses, wound healing, and metastasis of cancer cells. Migrasome visualization is essential for the deep exploration of migrasome biology. Despite the reported labeling methods based on migrasome marker proteins, a simple and convenient method for migrasome labeling is more desirable compared to the complicated transfection technique. Here, an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) based near-infrared (NIR) molecular probe named TTCPy was presented, which can bind to the phospholipid on migrasomes and light up migrasomes with a turn-on NIR fluorescence. TTCPy allows for high-performance imaging of migrasomes in both live cells and living chorioallantoic membranes via simple and rapid staining. Moreover, TTCPy achieves live-cell super-resolution imaging of migrasomes, affording remarkedly improved spatial resolution and signal-to-background ratio. This work offers a simple yet powerful tool for migrasome visualization and will contribute to the booming hotspot of migrasome biology.

Keywords: Aggregation-induced emission; Migrasome labeling; Near-infrared fluorescence; Super-resolution imaging.