A Smart Ruthenium-Locked Bioorthogonal Chemiluminescent Probe for
Long-Lasting Non-Invasive In Vivo Imaging
Abstract
Breast cancer remains a leading cause of mortality among women, driving
the need for more accurate diagnostic tools. To address this, a smart
ruthenium (Ru)-catalyzed bioorthogonal activation chemiluminescent (BAC)
probe has been developed for long-lasting non-invasive in vivo imaging.
Although chemiluminescence imaging offers ultrahigh sensitivity without
background autofluorescence, its application in breast cancer is limited
by poor selectivity in complex tumor environments, slow activation
kinetics and insufficient resolution. The BAC probe overcomes these
challenges via a smart “Ru-locked” mechanism, achieving
light-independent, thiol-triggered activation in complex tumor
microenvironment. This mechanism enables rapid activation (1 min),
prolonged half-life ( t 1/2 = 18.5 h), and high
sensitivity (LOD = 87 nM) across a broad emission range (400-800 nm),
while enhancing selectivity for thiol-containing metabolites,
particularly H 2S. The probe exhibits low toxicity in
vitro and efficiently activates chemiluminescence within the tumor
microenvironment in vivo, enabling precise imaging for tumor
localization and image-guided surgery. Additionally, the
phenoxy-adamantyl-1,2-dioxetane luminophores are developed via an
efficient synthetic route, which reduces the synthesis from seven steps
to two, lowering production costs (300- to 400-fold) and increasing
yields from 40% to 95%. This study introduces a smart Ru-locked BAC
probe for real-time, non-invasive monitoring of thiol-related
homeostasis in breast cancer, with promising application in clinical
diagnostic and therapeutic potential.