TY - JOUR A1 - Hartmann, Yannic A1 - El Abbassi, Abdelouahad A1 - Mayer, Bernhard A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Müller, Thomas J. J. T1 - Ester‐Aroyl‐S,N‐Ketene Acetals with Solid‐State Luminescence: AIEgens from Sequential Three‐Component Desymmetrization N2 - AbstractDi(hetero)aroyl dichlorides are desymmetrized upon sequential reaction with alcohols and 2‐methyl N‐benzyl thiazolium salts within the course of a one‐pot three‐component reaction yielding ester‐substituted aroyl‐S,N‐ketene acetals under mild conditions in good yields. A prerequisite for the concise one‐pot process is the different nucleophilicity of the alcohols and in situ generated S,N‐ketene acetals. The resulting compounds are merocyanines with dominant charge‐transfer absorption bands which are fluorescent in the solid state, but not in solution. In water/ethanol solvent mixtures of increasing water content, the water‐insoluble dyes display typical aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) characteristics. The water fraction inducing AIE as well as the emission color, and fluorescence quantum yield (Φf) of the aggregated dyes can be controlled by the alcohol part of the ester moiety. Encapsulation into polystyrene nanoparticles can lead to a considerable increase of the fluorescence quantum yield Φf to 30% as shown for a representatively chosen dye revealing the highest Φf of 11% within the dye series in the water/ethanol mixtures and enabling the usage of these dyes as fluorescent reporters in aqueous environments. KW - Dye KW - Fluorescence KW - Aggregation KW - Mechanism KW - Signal enhancement KW - Nano KW - Particle KW - Characterization KW - Quantum yield KW - Photophysics KW - Probe KW - Sensor KW - Lifetime KW - Polarity PY - 2025 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-642400 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/chem.202502071 SN - 0947-6539 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-64240 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Auxillos, J. A1 - Crouigneau, R. A1 - Li, Y.-F. A1 - Dai, Y. A1 - Stigliani, A. A1 - Tavernaro, Isabella A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Sandelin, A. A1 - Marie, R. A1 - Pedersen, S. F. T1 - Spatially resolved analysis of microenvironmental gradient impact on cancer cell phenotypes N2 - Despite the physiological and pathophysiological significance of microenvironmental gradients, e.g., for diseases such as cancer, tools for generating such gradients and analyzing their impact are lacking. Here, we present an integrated microfluidic-based workflow that mimics extracellular pH gradients characteristic of solid tumors while enabling high-resolution live imaging of, e.g., cell motility and chemotaxis, and preserving the capacity to capture the spatial transcriptome. Our microfluidic device generates a pH gradient that can be rapidly controlled to mimic spatiotemporal microenvironmental changes over cancer cells embedded in a 3D matrix. The device can be reopened allowing immunofluorescence analysis of selected phenotypes, as well as the transfer of cells and matrix to a Visium slide for spatially resolved analysis of transcriptional changes across the pH gradient. This workflow is easily adaptable to other gradients and multiple cell types and can therefore prove invaluable for integrated analysis of roles of microenvironmental gradients in biology. KW - Bioimaging KW - Fluorescence KW - Cell KW - Cancer KW - Method KW - Microfluids KW - Model KW - Calibration KW - Sensor KW - Ph KW - Probe KW - Workflow PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-604631 DO - https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn3448 VL - 19 IS - 18 SP - 1 EP - 17 AN - OPUS4-60463 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - López-Iglesias, C. A1 - Markovina, A. A1 - Nirmalananthan-Budau, N. A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Klinger, D. T1 - Optically monitoring the microenvironment of a hydrophobic cargo in amphiphilic nanogels: influence of network composition on loading and release N2 - Amphiphilic nanogels (ANGs) are promising carriers for hydrophobic cargos such as drugs, dyes, and catalysts. Loading content and release kinetics of these compounds are controlled by type and number of hydrophobic groups in the amphiphilic copolymer network. Thus, understanding the interactions between cargo and colloidal carrier is mandatory for a tailor-made and cargo-specific ANG design. To systematically explore the influence of the network composition on these interactions, we prepared a set of ANGs of different amphiphilicity and loaded these ANGs with varying concentrations of the solvatochromic dye Nile Red (NR). Here, NR acts as a hydrophobic model cargo to optically probe the polarity of its microenvironment. Analysis of the NR emission spectra as well as measurements of the fluorescence quantum yields and decay kinetics revealed a decrease in the polarity of the NR microenvironment with increasing hydrophobicity of the hydrophobic groups in the ANG network and dye–dye interactions at higher loading concentrations. At low NR concentrations, the hydrophobic cargo NR is encapsulated in the hydrophobic domains. Increasing NR concentrations resulted in probe molecules located in a more hydrophilic environment, i.e., at the nanodomain border, and favored dye–dye interactions and NR aggregation. These results correlate well with release experiments, indicating first NR release from more hydrophilic network locations. Overall, our findings demonstrate the importance to understand carrier–drug interactions for efficient loading and controlled release profiles in amphiphilic nanogels. KW - Particle KW - Energy transfer KW - Limit of detection KW - Polymer KW - Luminescence KW - Quantitative spectroscopy KW - Nano KW - Quantum yield KW - Lifetime KW - Quality assurance KW - Dye KW - Probe KW - Sensor KW - Nile Red PY - 2024 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-601603 DO - https://doi.org/10.1039/d4nr00051j SN - 2040-3364 IS - 16 SP - 9525 EP - 9535 PB - The Royal Society of Chemistry AN - OPUS4-60160 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -