Lysosomes are an important organelle involved in many physiological processes. However,
enhancing the accurate localization of lysosomes by chemical modification is still
a problem. Herein, the purine-based AIEgens with different morpholine substitution
sites were constructed. The effects of modification sites on the absorption, fluorescence,
pH, viscosity and bioimaging properties of the probes were systematically studied.
The morpholine modification at the phenyl site could effectively enhance the fluorescence
behavior and the lysosome specificity. The morpholine-modified AIEgens could achieve
the further lysosome imaging during the lipophagy process. This basic study might
do favor to design more probes for further lysosome function studies.
Key words
purine - aggregation-induced emission - lipophagy - morpholine - lysosome-targeting
- fluorescent probe