BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Fluorescent probes have played a key role in modern cell biology and medical diagnostics. Organic small dye molecules are generally used in fluorescent based techniques such as fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, and versatile fluorescent assays and sensors. Historically, common fluorophores were derivatives of fluorescein, rhodamine, coumarin, and cyanine etc. Newer generations of fluorophores such as the Alexa Fluors are generally more photostable. However, for many imaging tasks and ultrasensitive assays, their brightness and photostability cannot provide sufficient signal to overcome the background associated with various autofluorescence and scattering processes within the cells. Other factors such as blinking and saturated emission rate may also pose difficulties in high-speed and high-throughout fluorescent assays.

Advances in understanding biological systems have relied on applications of fluorescence microscopy, flow cytometry, versatile biological assays, and biosensors (Pepperkok, R.; Ellenberg, J. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2006, 7, 690-696; Giepmans, B. N. G.; Adams, S. R.; Ellisman, M. H.; Tsien, R. Y. Science 2006, 312, 217-224). These experimental approaches make extensive use of organic dye molecules as probes. But intrinsic limitations of the conventional dyes, such as low absorptivity and poor photostability, have posed great difficulties in further developments of high-sensitivity imaging techniques and high-throughout assays (Resch-Genger, U.; Grabolle, M.; Cavaliere-Jaricot, S.; Nitschke, R.; Nann, T. Nat. Methods 2008, 5, 763-775; Fernandez-Suarez, M.; Ting, A. Y. Nat. Rev. Mol. Cell Biol. 2008, 9, 929-943).

As a result, there has been considerable interest in developing brighter and more photostable fluorescent probes. For example, inorganic semiconducting quantum dots (Qdots) are under active development and now commercially available from Life Technologies (Invitrogen). Qdots are ideal probes for multiplexed target detection because of their broad excitation band and narrow, tunable emission peaks. They exhibit improved brightness and photostability over conventional organic dyes (Bruchez, M.; Moronne, M.; Gin, P.; Weiss, S.; Alivisatos, A. P. Science 1998, 281, 2013-2016; Chan, W. C. W.; Nie, S. M. Science 1998, 281, 2016-2018; Wu, X. Y.; Liu, H. J.; Liu, J. Q.; Haley, K. N.; Treadway, J. A.; Larson, J. P.; Ge, N. F.; Peale, F.; Bruchez, M. P. Nat. Biotechnol. 2003, 21, 452-452; and Michalet, X.; Pinaud, F. F.; Bentolila, L. A.; Tsay, J. M.; Doose, S.; Li, J. J.; Sundaresan, G.; Wu, A. M.; Gambhir, S. S.; Weiss, S. Science 2005, 307, 538-544). However, Qdots are not bright enough for many photon-starved applications because of their low emission rates, blinking, and a significant fraction of non-fluorescent dots (Yao, J.; Larson, D. R.; Vishwasrao, H. D.; Zipfel, W. R.; Webb, W. W. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2005, 102, 14284-14289). There has been recent work to develop non-blinking Qdots (Wang, X. Y.; Ren, X. F.; Kahen, K.; Hahn, M. A.; Rajeswaran, M.; Maccagnano-Zacher, S.; Silcox, J.; Cragg, G. E.; Efros, A. L.; Krauss, T. D. Nature 2009, 459, 686-689), but their toxicity, caused by the leaching of heavy metal ions, is still a critical concern for in vivo applications.

Quantum dots are inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals of the same material (for example CdSe/ZnS dot) with different size in the range of a few nanometers. They exhibit size tunable emission colors due to the quantum confinement effect. As compared to conventional dye, quantum dots are estimated to be 20 times brighter and 100 times more stable. However, these nanoparticles typically require a thick encapsulation layer to reach the required levels of water-solubility and biocompatibility, resulting in particle diameters on the order of 15-30 nm for an active fluorophore particle size of only 3-6 nm. The relatively large size of encapsulated quantum dots can significantly alter biological function and transport of the biomolecules. Quantum dots show broad band absorption and the major absorption part lies in the UV region, which is not appropriate for most laser based applications. Another critical issue with quantum dot probes is their toxicity due to the leaching of heavy metal Cd2+ions. The energy of UV irradiation is close to that of the covalent chemical bond energy of CdSe nanocrystals. As a result, the particles can be dissolved, in a process known as photolysis, to release toxic cadmium ions into the cellular or subcellular environment. The toxicity issue must be carefully examined before their applications in tumor or vascular imaging can be approved for human clinical purposes. Additionally, the low emission rates, blinking, and a significant fraction of nonfluorescent dots also raise potential problems, particularly for single molecule/particle imaging applications.

An alternative fluorescent nanoparticle is dye doped latex spheres, which exhibit improved brightness and photostability as compared to single fluorescent molecules because of multiple dye molecules per particle and the protective latex matrix. (Wang, L.; Wang, K. M.; Santra, S.; Zhao, X. J.; Hilliard, L. R.; Smith, J. E.; Wu, J. R.; Tan, W. H. Anal. Chem. 2006, 78, 646-654). However, there are also a number of limitations with the dye-loaded beads such as limited dye-loading concentration (a few percent) due to self-quenching, and the relatively large particle size (>30 nm) that would preclude sensing schemes involving the use of energy transfer to report analyte concentrations.

Light-emitting polymers have attracted an overwhelming interest since their discovery 20 years ago. These materials combine the easy processability and outstanding mechanical characteristics of polymers with the readily-tailored electrical and optical properties of semiconductors, therefore find extensive applications in light-emitting diodes, field-effect transistors, photovoltaic cells, and other optoelectronic devices. Fluorescent polymer dots exhibit extraordinarily high fluorescence brightness under both one-photon and two-photon excitation (Wu, C.; Szymanski, C.; Cain, Z.; McNeill, J. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2007, 129, 12904-12905. C. Wu, B. Bull, C. Szymanski, K. Christensen, J. McNeill, ACS Nano 2008, 2, 2415-2423.). The fluorescent polymer dots possess arguably the highest fluorescence brightness/volume ratios of any nanoparticle to date, owing to a number of favorable characteristics of semiconducting polymer molecules, including their high absorption cross sections, high radiative rates, high effective chromophore density, and minimal levels of aggregation-induced fluorescence quenching. The use of fluorescent polymer dots as fluorescent probes also confers other useful advantages, such as the lack of heavy metal ions that could leach out into solution. However, for applying these probes in biological imaging or sensing applications, an important problem has yet to be solved, that is, the surface functionalization and bioconjugation.

Therefore, there remains a need to develop fluorescent polymer dots with functional groups on the surface that allow for probes to be used in biological systems. The surface functionalization should maintain or enhance the fluorescence brightness or photostability of the hydrophobic polymer dots, not change the size and the long-term monodispersity of the dots in aqueous environment, allow for further conjugation to biomolecules of a range of types, prevent or minimize non-specific binding to other biomoleucles, and allow for the polymer dots to be produced on a commercial scale in a cost-effective manner. The present invention meets these and other needs by providing, among other aspect, stable, functionalized chromophoric polymer dots (Pdots) and bioconjugates thereof.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one aspect of the present invention relates to a functionalized chromophoric polymer dot. The functionalized chromophoric polymer dot has a core of chromophoric polymer, and a cap of functionalization agent bearing one or more functional groups.

In one aspect, the present invention provides a functionalized chromophoric polymer dot having a hydrophobic core and a hydrophilic cap. In one embodiment, the functionalized Pdot comprises a chromophoric polymer and an amphiphilic molecule, having a hydrophobic moiety and a hydrophilic moiety attached to a reactive functional group, wherein the chromophoric polymer is embedded within the hydrophobic core of the Pdot and; wherein a portion of the amphiphilic molecule is embedded within the core of the Pdot and the reactive functional group is located in the hydrophilic cap. In a preferred embodiment, the chromophoric polymer is a semiconducting polymer.

In another aspect, a bioconjugate of the polymer dot is disclosed. The bioconjugate is formed by the attachment of a biomolecule to one or more functional groups of the chromophoric polymer dot. The attachment may be direct or indirect.

In yet another aspect a method of preparing functionalized chromophoric polymer dots is disclosed. The method involves the introduction of a protic solvent into an aprotic solution containing a mixture of a chromophoric polymer and a functionalization agent (bearing one or more functional groups).

In one aspect, the present invention provides a method for preparing a functionalized chromophoric polymer dot, the method comprising the steps of (a) preparing a mixture of a chromophoric polymer and an amphiphilic molecule attached to a reactive functional group in a non-protic solvent; (b) injecting all or a portion of the mixture into a solution comprising a protic solvent, thereby collapsing the chromophoric polymer and amphiphilic molecule into a nanoparticle; and (c) removing the non-protic solvent from the mixture formed in step (b), thereby forming a suspension of functionalized chromophoric polymer dots, wherein a portion of the amphiphilic molecule is embedded within the core of the nanoparticle and the reactive functional group is located on the surface of the nanoparticle.

In another aspect, the present invention provides a method for conjugating a biological molecule to a functionalized chromophoric polymer dot, the method comprising incubating a functionalized chromophoric polymer dot with the biological molecule in a solution containing polyethylene glycol under conditions suitable for conjugating the biological molecule to the functionalized chromophoric polymer dot, wherein the presence of polyethylene glycol in the solution reduces non-specific adsorption of the biological molecule to the surface of the polymer dot.

In yet another aspect, the present invention provides a method for labeling a target molecule in a biological sample, the method comprising contacting the biological sample with a chromophoric polymer dot conjugated to a targeting moiety that specifically binds the target molecule.

In another embodiment, the present invention provides a method for the bioorthogonal labeling of a cellular target, the method comprising contacting a cellular target having a first surface-exposed functional group capable of participating in a bioorthogonal chemistry reaction with a chromophoric polymer dot. In a particular embodiment, the bioorthogonal reaction is a click chemistry reaction that is performed with a Pdot carrying a reactive functional group capable of participating in such a reaction.

In yet another embodiment, the present invention provides chromophoric polymer dots having a red-shifted emission peak. In one embodiment, the red-shifted Pdots have a peak emission in the far-red region. In other embodiments, the red-shifted Pdots have a peak emission in the near-IR region. In one embodiment, the red-shifted Pdots comprise a PFTBT polymer. In certain embodiments, the polymer dots comprising a blend of two or more different chromophoric polymers. For example, in one embodiment, the Pdots comprise a blend of PFBT and PFTBT polymers.

