AIE Nanoassemblies for Discrimination of Glycosaminoglycans and Heparin Quality Control

The discrimination of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) is a challenging task but of great importance to ensure their safe use in clinics. Herein, four supramolecular AIE nanoassemblies denoted as PDDA-TPE, PDDA-TPE, PDDA-TPE, and PDDA-TPE were synthesized by loading different amounts of the negatively charged AIEgen TPE onto the surface of the positively charged polymer PDDA. These AIE nanoassemblies were utilized for the construction of a fluorescent sensor array, which was able to discriminate various GAGs on the basis of a compaction to displacement reaction mechanism. LDA and HCA results revealed that GAGs including Hep, Chs, HA, CTS, DS, and OSCS can be discriminated with 100% accuracy. The four-sensor array was then simplified to a three-sensor array using PDDA-TPE, PDDA-TPE, and PDDA-TPE as the sensors, which was determined to be still powerful in discrimination of various GAGs, accurate identification of unknown GAG samples, sensitive detection of trace OSCS contaminant in Hep, and identification of Hep and other biologically abundant anions. Moreover, the three-sensor array was even successfully applied for differentiating GAGs in serum media.