Currently, the remarkable photocaged techniques, by which the light irradiation can trigger release of molecules from �photocaged� moieties, have been developed to dynamically manipulate the biological processes. However, most of the existing photocaged systems heavily rely on high energy UV or visible light to initiate the active states of caged molecules. Therefore, the development of simple and effective photocaged alternatives which can enhance the possible utility of photocaged systems with limited cellular damage and deeper penetration in biological studies will be still highly desirable.In this paper, we demonstrate a simple and unique photoreleasable bioluminescent imaging probe based on the photocaged molecule coated silica-lanthanide UCNPs conjugate. Upon NIR light irradiation, the sharp emission converted from the photocaged UCNPs complex can effectively photorelease the imaging probe and thus significantly produce the fluorescence and bioluminescence in the cell line with the reporter enzyme expression. This NIR light response UCNPs conjugate may provide an alternative photocaged platform for their biomedical applications in real-time imaging of gene expression and targeted drug delivery in living system with less photo-damage and increased tissue penetration depths.

In vitro and in vivo uncaging and bioluminescence imaging through photocaged upconversion nanoparticles

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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