Cancer microspheres are an ideal cellular model for studying cancer stem cells. However, the lack of effective and rapid fluorescent imaging reagents for cancer microspheres has severely hampered cytological studies associated with cancer microspheres. Here, we have identified an aggregation-induced emission (AIE) probe, TPE-COOH, to bind to a targeting cyclic heptapeptide molecule to form a new TPE-Peptide probe. This probe has been employed for fluorescence imaging of normal, cancer and cancer microsphere cells. A novel analogue of TPAPy-1 was synthesized to verify the cell-specific targeting. For the first time, the fluorescence imaging of cancer microspheres was achieved and microspheres were imaged due to changes in viscosity, thereby providing a means to visualize and identify cancer microspheres.

癌症微球是研究癌症干细胞的理想细胞模型。然而，缺乏有效和快速的癌症微球荧光成像试剂严重阻碍了与癌症微球相关的细胞学研究。在这里，我们已经确定了一种聚集诱导发射 (AIE) 探针TPE-COOH，它可以与靶向环状七肽分子结合，形成一种新的TPE-肽探针。该探针已用于正常、癌症和癌症微球细胞的荧光成像。TPAPy-1的新型类似物合成以验证细胞特异性靶向。首次实现了癌微球的荧光成像，微球因黏度的变化而成像，为癌微球的可视化和识别提供了手段。