Fluorescent organic nanoparticles (FONs) with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics have emerged as ideal probes in fluorescent imaging for visualization of complex biological processes by taking advantages of excellent optical properties, designability and biocompatibility. Significant progresses in the syntheses of AIE-active FONs open up new possibilities in biological applications, whereas, only limited attention was focused on the fabrication of biodegradable FONs through the ring-opening polymerization (ROP) of AIE-active N-carboxyanhydrides (NCA) monomers. In this work, l-Cysteine (Cys) is functionalized with an AIE dye in the side chain, and then transformed into polymerizable NCA monomer with AIE feature. In the next step, amino-terminated poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) was directly used to initiate the ROP of AIE-active NCA. The prepared amphiphilic copolymers contain hydrophilic PEG and hydrophobic AIE dye have a tendency to self-assemble into core-shell nanostructure. Results confirmed mPEG₅₀₀₀Cys-Phe FONs owned high water dispersibility and excellent optical properties. Besides, biological evaluation results demonstrated that these AIE-active FONs possess good biocompatibility and fluorescent imaging performance. More importantly, the strategy also be extend for the preparation other polypeptides based fluorescent probes with desired structure and functions.

具有聚集诱导发射（AIE）特性的荧光有机纳米颗粒（FON）已经成为荧光成像中理想的探针，可利用其出色的光学性能，可设计性和生物相容性来可视化复杂的生物过程。AIE活性FON的合成方面的重大进展为生物学应用开辟了新的可能性，而仅有限的注意力集中在通过AIE活性N-羧基酐（NCA）的开环聚合（ROP）来制造可生物降解的FON上。单体。在这项工作中，我-半胱氨酸（Cys）在侧链中被AIE染料官能化，然后转化为具有AIE特征的可聚合NCA单体。在下一步中，直接使用氨基末端的聚乙二醇（PEG）来引发AIE活性NCA的ROP。所制备的两亲共聚物包含亲水性PEG和疏水性AIE染料，具有自组装成核-壳纳米结构的趋势。结果证实，mPEG ₅₀₀₀ Cys-Phe FON具有高水分散性和优异的光学性能。此外，生物学评估结果表明，这些具有AIE活性的FON具有良好的生物相容性和荧光成像性能。更重要的是，该策略也被扩展以制备具有所需结构和功能的其他基于多肽的荧光探针。