Single Atom-Engineered NIR-II Gold Clusters with Ultrahigh Brightness and Stability for Acute Kidney Injury |
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Authors: | You Huang Ke Chen Ling Liu Huizhen Ma Xiaoning Zhang Kexin Tan Yuan Li Ying Liu Changlong Liu Hao Wang Xiao-Dong Zhang |
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Affiliation: | 1. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Brain Science and Neural Engineering, Academy of Medical Engineering and Translational Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300072 China;2. Department of Physics and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Materials Physics and Preparing Technology, School of Sciences, Tianjin University, Tianjin, 300350 China |
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Abstract: | Near-infrared-II (NIR-II) imaging has shown great potential for monitoring the pathological progression and deep tissue imaging but is limited to present unmet NIR-II agent. Present fluorophores show a promising prospect for NIR-II imaging, but brightness and photostability are still highly challenging during real-time monitoring. In this work, atom-engineered NIR-II Au24Cd1 clusters with ultrahigh brightness, stability, and photostability are developed via single atomic Cd doping. Single atom Cd substitutions contribute to Cd 4d state in HOMO and redistribution of energy level near the gap, exhibiting 56-fold fluorescence enhancement of Au24Cd1 clusters. Meanwhile, single atomic Cd reinforces Cd Au bond energy, formation energy, and stabilized cluster structure, leading to persistent stability for up to 1 month without decay, as well as excellent photostability of 1 h without photobleaching, much longer than clinically approved indocyanine green (<5 min). In vivo imaging shows gold clusters can monitor acute kidney injury (AKI) even after 72 h of injury, enabling evaluating progression at a very long window. Meanwhile, the bioactive gold clusters can alleviate AKI-induced oxidative stress damage and acute neuroinflammation. Single atom-engineered gold clusters exhibit molecular tracking and diagnostic prospect in kidney-related diseases. |
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Keywords: | acute kidney injuries gold clusters high photostability near-infrared-II imaging single atom engineered |
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