Circular Polarized Light-Activated Chiral Satellite Nanoprobes for the Imaging and Analysis of Multiple Metal Ions in Living Cells.

Here, we constructed a handedness-dependent circular polarized light (CPL)-activated chiral satellite assembly formed by DNAzyme-driven spiny nanorod dimer and upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), enabling the simultaneous quantitative analysis of multiple divalent metal ions, namely, copper (Cu2+), magnesium (Mg2+) and zinc (Zn2+) ions, in living cells. These chiral nanoprobes, with intense triple luminescence signals at 542 nm, 580 nm and 680 nm, in coordination with their corresponding divalent metal ions under 980 nm left circular polarized (LCP) light illumination, were used as an in situ confocal bio-imaging platform for the quantitation of the given intracellular metal ions. The limit of detection (LOD) of the chiral probes in living cells was 1.1 nmol/106 cells, 1.02 nmol/106 cells and 0.45 nmol/106 cells for Zn2+, Mg2+ and Cu2+, respectively.