Lab-in-cell based on spontaneous amino-yne click polymerization

Unnatural reaction in the living cells is a powerful tool for biological research. However, the polymerization inside cells is rarely reported. In this work, a lab-in-cell is illustrated based on our developed spontaneous amino-yne click polymerization. Carbonyl group activated terminal diyne can spontaneously polymerize with tetraphenylethene (TPE)-containing primary diamine inside cells, and polymer with weight-average molecular weight of 7,300 was yielded. By utilizing this in vivo amino-yne click polymerization and taking advantage of the aggregation-induced emission feature of TPE, a “turn-on” cell imaging was realized, and in-situ killing of cells was also acquired by destroying the structures of actin and tubulin, which cannot be realized by pre-prepared polymer. This strategy provides a useful platform and holds great promise in biochemistry and therapy applications.