Vol. 2 No. 3 (2025)

Research Articles

Development of Poly(p-phenylene vinylene)-Derived Near-inFrared Two-Photon Fluorescent Dyes and Nucleus-Specific Fluorescent Probes

Published 2025-07-30

  • Haopeng Yang
    • ,
  • Bo Chou

Haopeng Yang
State Key Laboratory of Functional Organic Molecules, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730030, China

Bo Chou
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730030, China

Abstract

PPV, an early air-stable conjugated polymer, is widely used in organic electronics and bioimaging due to its simple structure and UV-Vis spectral properties. This chapter explores the design, synthesis, and potential applications of near-infrared two-photon fluorescent dyes derived from PPV. Small molecule dyes (HO-PPV-X) with improved water solubility and strong push-pull structures were created by modifying PPV. Three synthesized dyes, HO-PPV-3CN, HO-PPV-MePy, and HO-PPV-EtBT, showed good solubility and near-infrared fluorescence. Live-cell imaging revealed different cellular localization: HO-PPV-3CN stained cytoplasm, HO-PPV-MePy stained the whole cell, and HO-PPV-EtBT targeted the nucleus. These findings suggest potential for developing fluorescent probes and diagnostic reagents with specific subcellular localization functions, especially HO-PPV-EtBT for nuclear staining.

Keywords

subcellular localization, nucleus-localized fluorescent probe, two-photon imaging

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