Citation: Meng-Juan Tang, Zhong-Hong Zhu, Hai-Ling Wang, Fu-Pei Liang, Hua-Hong Zou. Mitochondria-targeted and magnetic resonance imaging of water-stable trilobate-shaped nonanuclear lanthanide clusters[J]. Chinese Chemical Letters, ;2026, 37(9): 112126. doi: 10.1016/j.cclet.2025.112126 shu

Mitochondria-targeted and magnetic resonance imaging of water-stable trilobate-shaped nonanuclear lanthanide clusters

a.
Key Laboratory for Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Medicinal Resources (Ministry of Education of China), Guangxi Key Laboratory of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Medicinal Resources, School of Chemistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Guangxi Normal University, Guilin 541004, China
b.
School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangxi Key Laboratory of Electrochemical Energy Materials, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, China

whl2016010984@163.com

gxnuchem@foxmail.com

Received Date: 6 July 2025
Revised Date: 4 November 2025
Accepted Date: 16 November 2025
Available Online: 17 November 2025

Figures(9)

The construction of lanthanide nanoclusters that are stable in aqueous solution is challenging, which has led to a sluggish application in the field of bioimaging. Herein, a chelating ligand protection strategy was used to construct nonanuclear lanthanide clusters (Ln₉, Ln = Eu, Dy, and Gd) that is stable in aqueous solution. The first fluorescence imaging performance of lanthanide clusters targeting mitochondrial organelles was achieved, with colocalization coefficients of up to 0.96 (MCF-7) and 0.93 (MDA-MB-231) with commercial mitochondrial dyes, respectively. Eu₉ can be rapidly taken up by zebrafish and shows excellent fluorescence imaging results, demonstrating its excellent in vivo imaging performance. In addition, the longitudinal and transverse relaxation rates r₁ and r₂ of Gd₉ with highly aggregated Gd(Ⅲ) ions are 39.42 and 50.58 mmol L⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively, showing great application potential as a new and efficient T₁-weighted nanocluster-based magnetic resonance imaging contrast agents.
- Lanthanide clusters,
- Solvothermal synthesis,
- Luminescence,
- Cell imaging,
- Magnetic resonance imaging
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