Cancer cell-selective aggregation-induced emission probe for long-term plasma membrane imaging

Long-term plasma membrane (PM) tracking is important for studying the membrane function and diagnosis of membrane-related diseases. However, current PM probes can easily diffuse into the cytoplasm, which is undesirable. Here, we report an amphipathic aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active far-red fluorescent probe, named DENPB, for long-term PM imaging. In live cancer cells, DENPB can be turned on after insertion into the PM and shows long-term membrane retention. It can be used for PM tracking for 6 h without obvious internalization. Interestingly, data show that it selectively stained the PM of live cancer cells (e.g., HeLa, HepG2, MDA-MB-231, MCF-7) but showed no signal in live non-cancer cells (e.g., RAW 264.7, NIH 3T3, HFF). It can also distinguish paraformaldehyde-fixed cancer cells from non-cancer cells by showing different signal patterns. This work provides a rational design strategy for a long-term PM-retention probe and a useful tool for cancer cell-specific staining that may greatly contribute to cancer diagnosis.