Engineered dispersed-structural fluorescent nanoprobes enable fast and long-lasting tracking of Nitric oxide in vivo

Abstract

Achieving in vivo fast and long-lasting fluorescent tracking to short lived NO becomes challenging, which arises from probes needing efficient interaction, hindered by uncontrollable self-aggregation and a preference for hydrophobic conditions in NO-specific reactions. It is imperative to transform the uncontrollable aggregated structure to dispersed structure and umpolung of the nanoenvironment from hydrophilic to hydrophobic for the probes. Herein, water-soluble dispersed-structural fluorescent nanoprobes (SiRDNPs-FNP) are engineered through the flash nanoprecipitation (FNP) method, enabling fast and enduring in vivo tracking of NO. SiRDNPs encapsulate probes within amphiphilic block copolymers, achieving a hydrophobic nanoenvironment while maintaining excellent water solubility. Furthermore, the dispersed structure of probes in NPs cores are regulated by manipulating processing parameters, facilitating easier NO access to probe molecules and significantly reducing the response time. This strategy offers a novel platform for fabricating hydrophobic probes into controllable dispersed-structural nanoprobes for fast and long-lasting tracking of key signaling gas in vivo.