A Multifunctional Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogen with pH-Response Detachable Connector for Lipid Droplet-Specific Imaging and Tracing

Lipid droplets (LDs) targeting probes are important for investigating the biological functions of LDs. The interplay between LDs and some other organelles can help to further understand the biological functions of these organelles. However, it is still a challenge to design functional probes that can specifically target LDs and are responsive to some other organelles. Herein, a multifunctional aggregation-induced emission luminogen (AIEgen), namely the TPA-CN, was prepared by the simple aldimine condensation reaction for lipid droplet-specific imaging and tracing. TPA-CN can be sensitively responsive to the acid environment of lysosomes due to the pH-response detachable connector in TPA-CN. With the assistance of this characteristic, it can be concluded from the fluorescence imaging and co-localization analysis results that the internalization of TPA-CN and the targeting of LDs does not involve the lysosome and the lysosomal escape process. At last, the TPA-CN was successfully used for the high-sensitivity imaging of dynamic information of LDs.