Selective Visualization of Tumor Cell Membranes and Tumors with a Viscosity-Sensitive Plasma Membrane Probe

Cancer is a worldwide health problem. Revealing the changes in the microenvironment after cell carcinogenesis is helpful to understand cancer and develop sensitive methods for cancer diagnosis. We developed herein a viscosity-responsive plasma membrane probe (TPA-S) that was successfully used to probe the viscosity difference between normal and tumor cell plasma membranes for the first time. The probe shows AIE properties with good water solubility, significant near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence responses to viscosity with high sensitivity, and excellent cell membrane location performance. With these features, our experiments showed that TPA-S could selectively visualize cancer cell plasma membranes, revealing that the plasma membrane of tumor cells is more viscous than that of normal cells. In addition, TPA-S was successfully applied to specifically light up tumors. Altogether, this work explored the changes of cell membrane viscosity after canceration, provided a new method for selective visualization of tumor cells, and opened up a new approach for cancer diagnosis.