Hydrogen-bond-driven self-assembly of chemiluminophore affording long-lasting in vivo imaging.

Developing chemiluminescence probe with a slow kinetic profile, even a constant emission within analytical time, would improve the analytical sensitivity, but still remains challenging. This work reports a novel strategy to afford long-lasting in vivo imaging by developing a self-assembled chemiluminophore HPQCL-Cl via the introduction of the hydrogen-bond-driven self-assembled dye HPQ to Schaap's dioxetane. Compared with classical chemiluminophore HCL , self-assembled HPQCL-Cl was isolated from the physiological environment, thereby lowering its deprotonation and prolonging its half-life. Based on HPQCL-Cl , the long-lasting in vivo imaging of 9L-lacz tumor was achieved by developing a β-gal-responsive probe. Its signals remained constant (<5% change) for about 20 min, which may provide a wide time window for the determination of β-gal. This probe also showed high tumor-to-normal tissue ratio throughout tumor resection, highlighting its potential in image-guided clinical surgery. We report a novel strategy to afford long-lasting in vivo imaging by developing a self-assembled chemiluminophore HPQCL-Cl via the introduction of the hydrogen-bond-driven self-assembled dye HPQ to Schaap's dioxetane. In the assembles, the phenolic hydroxyl in HPQCL-Cl was isolated from the physiological environment, thereby lowering its deprotonation and prolonging the chemiluminescence half-life. Based on HPQCL-Cl , we achieved the long-lasting in vivo imaging and chemiluminescence imaging guided surgical resection of tumor by developing a β-galactosidase-responsive chemiluminescence probe. [Display omitted] • A strategy to prolong the chemiluminescence half-life is presented. • The self-assembled chemiluminophore provides a wide time window for the determination of the biomarkers. • The reported chemiluminescence probe exhibited high tumor-to-normal tissue ratio throughout the surgical operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]