Cancer is a health threat worldwide, and it is urgent to develop more sensitive cancer detection methods. Herein, a polarity-sensitive cell membrane probe (named COP) was developed for detecting cancer cells and tumors sensitively and selectively at the cell membrane level. The probe shows a strong polarity-dependent fluorescence and excellent cell membrane targeting ability to visualize cell membrane with red fluorescence with a non-washing process. Notably, COP can selectively light up the tumor cell membranes, which reveals that cancer cell membranes have lower polarity than normal cell membranes. The giant unilamellar vesicle model and cell imaging studies proved this. Moreover, COP can effectively and selectively light up tumors. Overall, this work demonstrates that the polarity of the tumor cell membrane is quite different to normal cell membranes, and based on this, sensitive membrane probes can be developed to selectively visualize cancer cells and tumors, which opens up a new way for tumor diagnosis at the cellular level.

中文翻译：

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极性敏感细胞膜探针揭示了肿瘤细胞膜的低极性及其在肿瘤诊断中的应用

癌症是全球范围内的健康威胁，迫切需要开发更灵敏的癌症检测方法。在此，开发了一种极性敏感的细胞膜探针（命名为COP），用于在细胞膜水平上敏感和选择性地检测癌细胞和肿瘤。该探针显示出强烈的极性依赖性荧光和出色的细胞膜靶向能力，无需洗涤即可用红色荧光可视化细胞膜。值得注意的是，COP可以选择性地点亮肿瘤细胞膜，这表明癌细胞膜的极性低于正常细胞膜。巨大的单层囊泡模型和细胞成像研究证明了这一点。此外，COP能有效选择性地点亮肿瘤。总体而言，这项工作表明肿瘤细胞膜的极性与正常细胞膜有很大不同，在此基础上，可以开发敏感的膜探针来选择性地可视化癌细胞和肿瘤，为肿瘤诊断开辟了一条新途径。细胞水平。