A Highly Water-Soluble Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogen with Anion-π⁺ Interactions for Targeted NIR Imaging of Cancer Cells and Type I Photodynamic Therapy

The low oxygen dependence of type I photosensitizers (PSs) has made them a popular choice for treating solid tumors. However, the drawbacks of poor water solubility, short emission wavelength, poor stability, and inability to distinguish cancer cells from normal cells limit the application of most type I PSs in clinical therapy. Thereby, developing novel type I PSs for overcoming these problems is an urgent but challenging task. Herein, by utilizing the distinctive structural characteristics of anion-π⁺ interactions, a highly water-soluble type I PS (DPBC-Br) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristic and near-infrared (NIR) emission is fabricated for the first time. DPBC-Br displays remarkable water solubility (7.3 mM) and outstanding photobleaching resistance, enabling efficient and precise differentiation between tumor cells and normal cells in a wash-free and long-term tracking manner via NIR-I imaging. Additionally, the superior type I reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by DPBC-Br provide both specific killing of cancer cells in vitro and inhibition of tumor growth in vivo, with negligible systemic toxicity. This study rationally constructs a highly water-soluble type I PS, which has higher reliability and controllability compared with conventional nanoparticle formulating procedures, offering great potential for clinical cancer treatment.