High resolution osteoclast-targeted imaging-guided osteoporosis alleviation via persistent luminescence nanocomposite

Osteoclasts with abnormal activity play an important role in osteoporosis. Deep penetration imaging with high resolution is required for osteoclasts, while targeted drug delivery facilitates osteoporosis elimination. Here we design the persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) with near-infrared (NIR) persistent emission at 700 nm and NIR two-photon excitation at 800–1100 nm. The NIR excitation and NIR emission realize the deep tissue imaging with high resolution. The PLNPs were then modified with D-Asp8 peptide for targeting to osteoclasts and integrated alendronate (ALN) for osteoporosis alleviation. Thus, PLNP-Asp/ALN composite realized osteoclast imaging in deep bone tissue with high sensitivity as the spot smaller than 0.74 μm was clearly observed. The results from microcomputed tomography, histochemical staining, and real-time quantitative polymerase chain analysis confirm the osteoporosis alleviation due to the integrated ALN. Thus, we design the PLNPs with NIR persistent emission and NIR excitation for interference-free deep tissue imaging and introduce ALN to eliminate osteoporosis as a new paradigm for bone-related imaging-guided therapy.