A Hybrid Nanogel to Preserve Lysosome Integrity for Fluorescence Imaging

Weiqi Zhang 1 2, Baoji Du 2, Menghan Gao 1, Ching-Hsuan Tung 2

ACS Nano. 2021 Oct 6. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.1c05864.

PMID: 34612039

Abstract

Fluorescence imaging of lysosomes provides a powerful tool to probe the lysosome physiology in living cells, yet the continuous light exposure inevitably causes lysosome damage and phototoxicity, which remains a formidable challenge. Here the long-term lysosome tracking with minimized photodamage was realized using a multifunctional nanoprobe, a platinum nanoparticle, and a quinacrine co-loaded nanogel. To construct the hybrid nanogel, cisplatin first functioned as cross-linker to withhold all components and then was reduced to a platinum nanoparticle in situ by ethanol. The platinum nanoparticle enabled a long-term quinacrine fluorescence imaging of lysosome by scavenging the light induced reactive oxygen species which could damage lysosomal membranes.