Sulfur-Doped Organosilica Nanodots as a Universal Sensor for Ultrafast Live/Dead Cell Discrimination
Yan-Hong Li,
Jia Zeng,
Zihao Wang,
Tian-Yu Wang,
Shun-Yu Wu,
Xiao-Yu Zhu,
Xinping Zhang,
Bai-Hui Shan,
Cheng-Zhe Gao,
Shi-Hao Wang,
Fu-Gen Wu
Affiliations
Yan-Hong Li
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Jia Zeng
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Zihao Wang
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Tian-Yu Wang
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Shun-Yu Wu
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Xiao-Yu Zhu
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Xinping Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Bai-Hui Shan
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Cheng-Zhe Gao
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Shi-Hao Wang
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Fu-Gen Wu
State Key Laboratory of Bioelectronics, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou Road, Nanjing 210096, China
Rapid and accurate differentiation between live and dead cells is highly desirable for the evaluation of cell viability. Here, we report the application of the orange-emitting sulfur-doped organosilica nanodots (S-OSiNDs) for ultrafast (30 s), ultrasensitive (1 μg/mL), and universal staining of the dead bacterial, fungal, and mammalian cells but not the live ones, which satisfies the requirements of a fluorescent probe that can specifically stain the dead cells. We further verify that the fluorescence distribution range of S-OSiNDs (which are distributed in cytoplasm and nucleus) is much larger than that of the commercial dead/fixed cell/tissue staining dye RedDot2 (which is distributed in the nucleus) in terms of dead mammalian cell staining, indicating that S-OSiNDs possess a better staining effect of dead cells than RedDot2. Overall, S-OSiNDs can be used as a robust fluorescent probe for ultrafast and accurate discrimination between dead and live cells at a single cell level, which may find a variety of applications in the biomedical field.
