Mitochondria-Targeted Sensor Array with Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens for Identification of Various Cells

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Molecular Imaging
• Cancer Diagnostics

Background:

• Accurate discrimination of cancerous cells is crucial for early tumor diagnosis.
• Mitochondria play a vital role in cellular functions and are implicated in cancer development.
• Existing imaging techniques may lack the specificity or sensitivity for precise cell discrimination.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate novel aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) for mitochondria-targeted imaging.
• To create a molecular sensor array for accurate discrimination of various cell types, including cancerous and normal cells.
• To establish a new method for early cancer diagnosis using mitochondria-targeted imaging.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of five AIEgens based on tetraphenylethylene (TPE) modified with methoxy groups, conjugated donor-acceptor, and varying positive charges.
• Formation of a positive mitochondria-target molecular sensor array (PT) for cross-fluorescence response imaging.
• Application of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) for cell identification and prediction.

Main Results:

• The synthesized AIEgens enabled multicolor emission and targeted mitochondria.
• The PT sensor array achieved 100% accurate identification of various cells, including normal, cancer, digestive tract cancer, gastric cancer, and mixed gastric cancer cells.
• SVM analysis demonstrated the PT array's predictive ability for unknown cell samples.

Conclusions:

• The developed PT sensor array represents a significant advancement in mitochondria-targeted molecular imaging.
• This study demonstrates the first application of a mitochondria-targeted sensor array for accurate cell identification.
• The PT array shows high potential for early cancer diagnosis and distinguishing between different cell types.