Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Oct 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Biotechnol. 2014 Mar 23;32(4):373–380. doi: 10.1038/nbt.2838

Figure 1. Design of CF-SPN for detection of ROS and RNS.

Figure 1

(a) The molecular components of CF-SPN are the NIR fluorescent semiconducting polymer PFODBT (dark red), a PEG-grafted poly(styrene) copolymer conjugated to galactose for hepatocyte targeting (black), the H2O2-specific chemiluminescent substrate CPPO (light blue) that serves as CRET energy donor, and the FRET acceptor IR775S (bright green) that degrades after oxidation by ONOO− or −OCl (dark green). PFODBT serves as the CRET energy acceptor and the FRET energy donor. (b) An illustration of the mechanism of simultaneous and differential detection of ONOO− or −OCl and H2O2 by CF-SPN is shown. Following drug challenge to the liver, CF-SPN report via the chemiluminescent and fluorescent channels the generation of radical metabolites at safe (left) and toxic drug doses (right). The hydrodynamic diameter distribution of CF-SPN was determined by dynamic light scattering (c). A transmission electron micrograph of CF-SPN (scale bar = 100 nm) is shown in (d).