Conformational Transduction Amplification in a Biomimetic Polyelectrolyte for Ultrasensitive Imaging of Iron Metabolism

Advanced Science

卷:13

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Yeqiang Zhou¹  Danqi Yang¹  Yiwei Wang¹  Shuangyan Li¹  Fan Fan¹  Jiayu Zou¹  Cheng Zhang¹  Yang Liu¹  Hong Tan¹  Mingming Ding¹ 

[1] College of Polymer Science and Engineering, National Key Laboratory of Advanced Polymer Materials, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

关键词: allosteric polyelectrolytes;    conformational transition;    near‐infrared fluorescence;    nonlinear fluorescence response;    ultrasensitive bioimaging;   

DOI  :  10.1002/advs.76185

 received in 2026-02-13, accepted in 2026-06-05,  发布年份 2026

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACTProteins exert sophisticated functions through stimulus‐responsive conformational changes. Mimicking this structural control and functional integration in synthetic, water‐soluble polymers has been a fundamental challenge, largely due to the conflict between charge repulsion and conformational order. Here, we report a peptidomimetic polyelectrolyte that overcomes this limitation, maintaining stable and well‐defined helical and sheet‐like conformations across the entire physiological pH range despite its high charge density. This intrinsic conformational order creates through‐space conjugated carbonyl clusters that function as non‐classical chromophores, enabling excitation‐dependent near‐infrared fluorescence with an exceptionally large Stokes shift. More importantly, the sheet‐like conformation enables cooperative, multidentate chelation of Fe3+ ions, which triggers an allosteric transition to a helix and results in nonlinear and ultrasensitive fluorescence quenching. Leveraging this unique “conformational transduction amplification” mechanism, we achieve real‐time visualization and tracking of iron ion distribution and metabolic pathways at subcellular and whole‐organism levels. This work establishes a paradigm of allosteric control in synthetic polyelectrolytes, opening avenues for the design of intelligent biomimetic materials for advanced sensing and imaging.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2026 The Author(s). Advanced Science published by Wiley‐VCH GmbH