Chromenylium Star Polymers: Merging Water Solubility and Stealth Properties with Shortwave Infrared Emissive Fluorophores

ABSTRACT: Fluorescence imaging in the shortwave infrared (SWIR) region has emerged as a vital tool for studying mammals. SWIR emissive polymethine dyes are well suited to this endeavor; however, advancing in vivo imaging utility with these dyes is primarily limited by hydrophobicity and/or non-specific protein adsorption. Herein, we take a distinct approach to combine hydrophilicity and stealth behavior to construct bright, SWIR emissive chromenylium fluorophores by employing a well-defined poly(2-methyl-2-oxazoline) (POx) star polymer architecture, which we refer to as chromenylium stars, or “CStars.” Of these polymer-shielded dyes, the variant containing five POx chains (CStar30) boasts particularly enhanced aqueous solubility and SWIR brightness, enabling high resolution SWIR imaging in mice. The

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PROVIDER: S-BIAD1368 | bioimages |

REPOSITORIES: bioimages