Sustained-release carriers with intrinsic luminescence exhibit the potential to combine imaging with bioactive agent delivery in practice. This study reports the synthesis and properties of CT, which is a gel-forming and highly tunable non-conjugated polymer with intrinsic luminescence. Owing to the excitation wavelength-dependent emission tunability of CT, optical imaging can be performed in a wide range of excitation wavelengths. This study is the first proof-of-concept study successfully integrating the property of clusterization-triggered emission into carrier design for combining imaging with bioactive agent delivery. By using cancer therapy as a practical example, our results demonstrate that CT is a depot system that cannot only enhance in vivo antitumor efficacy but can also allow its location and gelation process to be tracked in real time by giving an intrinsic blue-colored fluorescence signal. Together with its high biocompatibility, CT shows high practical potential for executing self-illuminating therapy to tackle cancer.

具有固有发光的缓释载体在实践中显示出将成像与生物活性剂输送相结合的潜力。这项研究报告了CT的合成和性质，CT是一种具有固有发光特性的凝胶形成且高度可调的非共轭聚合物。由于CT的与激发波长有关的发射可调性，可以在很宽的激发波长范围内进行光学成像。这项研究是第一个概念验证研究，成功地将聚集触发发射的特性整合到载体设计中，以将成像与生物活性剂递送相结合。通过以癌症治疗为例，我们的结果表明CT是一个不仅可以增强体内活性的储库系统抗肿瘤功效，但也可以通过发出固有的蓝色荧光信号来实时跟踪其位置和胶凝过程。结合其高生物相容性，CT在执行自发光疗法以治疗癌症方面显示出很高的实践潜力。