Hydrogen Polysulfide Biosignal-Responsive Polymersomes as a Nanoplatform for Distinguishing Intracellular Reactive...

Reactive sulfur species (RSS) are a family of crucial biosignals for regulating cell processes. Among these, hydrogen polysulfide (H₂ S_n , n ≥ 2) is a hallmark of tumor suppressor activation and regarded as the actual regulator to mediate sulfur-related biology. However, high effective recognition of intracellular H₂ S_n is insurmountable due to its extremely low concentration and the disturbance of RSS analogues. Here an H₂ S_n -responsive macromolecule that can distinguish H₂ S_n from intracellular RSS through polymer degradation in ultrasensitive and highly selective manner is reported. This kind of polymers can further self-assemble into vesicular nanostructure. Upon cell uptake, they can be function as "all-in-one" H₂ S_n -nanoplatforms, in order to fulfill multiple ambitious tasks including monitoring the H₂ S_n biosynthetic pathways, unraveling the puzzles of H₂ S_n -mediated cellular events, and conducting H₂ S_n pathological milieu-specific drug delivery.