Synthesis, characterization, and application of pyrene-based chalcones AIEgens for cellular and intracellular activity

[Display omitted] •Novel pyrene-based chalcones designed, synthesized and investigate their biological potential applications.•Investigated their DFT analysis HUMO-LUMO, optimized structure and molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) and pi-pi stacking.•MAN-Br and MAN-I both compounds shows excellent photophysical and AIE properties.•MAN-Br and MAN-I NPs demonstrated low toxicity along with cellular and intracellular ROS activity in in vitro tests.•Additionally, MAN-Br and MAN-I NPs exhibit notable oxygen responses in hypoxia and normoxia. Herein, we described the design and synthesis of MAN-Br, MAN-I and MAN-OH, a novel pyrene-based chalcones with aggregation induced emission (AIE), DFT, and cellular imaging properties. MAN-Br, and MAN-I exhibited AIE in DMSO-water mixture and this was confirmed by fluorescence spectroscopy studies. These three compounds MAN-Br, MAN-I and MAN-OH was investigated by computational analysis in which their HUMO-LUMO, optimized geometry, molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) are included. The synthesized AIE compound MAN-Br, and MAN-I was found to be non-toxic and promising candidate for biological studies. Cell imaging experiments reveals that MAN-Br, and MAN-I can effectively enhance the signal-to-noise ratio of imaging by reducing the interference from background due to their impressive AIE characteristics. This work will provide guidance for the construction of biological applications on the base of AIE-active compounds, which offers multiple opportunities for multiple clinical applications under hypoxic conditions.