Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

In recent years, luminogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) feature have attracted a great deal of attention, and been used in many high-tech fields. One important application is the biological diagnostics and therapeutics. Thus far, AIE luminogens (AIEgens) have been successfully utilized for in vitro/in vivo imaging and therapy, which show excellent performance and great promise. AIEgens have several notable characteristics, such as high brightness, large Stokes shift, marked photostability, and good biocompatibility, making them very suitable for biomedical applications. In this chapter, the recent development of AIEgens as biological agents is summarized, including the in vivo imaging with AIE nanoparticles, activable probes with special turn-on signature, near-infrared AIEgens for high-resolution imaging, theranostic systems combining diagnostic with therapeutic capabilities, and emerging multi-modality platforms. The future perspectives of AIEgens for biomedical applications are also discussed in this chapter.