Bio-Orthogonal AIEgen for Specific Discrimination and Elimination of Bacterial Pathogens via Metabolic Engineering

Multiple bacterial infections caused by interpatient spread lead to complications in diagnosis and clinical management, seriously threatening human health. In this contribution, we design a bio-orthogonal fluorescence turn-on probe TPEPA for the discrimination and precise ablation of bacterial pathogens. The probe has good water solubility and negligible fluorescence in aqueous media. On clicking with the azide groups decorated on bacteria by metabolic engineering, it shows fluorescence turn-on with far-red/near-infrared emission. Taking advantage of the difference in bacterial structures, TPEPA can discriminate pathogens via selective imaging of metabolically decorated Gram-negative bacteria with Kdo-N3 and Gram-positive bacteria with d-Ala-N3, respectively, even in a mixture. Furthermore, TPEPA can effectively generate reactive oxygen species, which allows imaging, discrimination, and precise ablation functions to be integrated into one system to realize a selective antimicrobial effect.