Abstract
Molecular probes that change their signals in response to the target of interest have a critical role in fundamental biology and medicine. Semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) have recently emerged as a new generation of purely organic photonic nanoagents with desirable properties for biological applications. In particular, tunable optical properties of SPNs allow them to be developed into photoluminescence, chemiluminescence, and photoacoustic probes, wherein SPNs usually serve as the energy donor and internal reference for luminescence and photoacoustic probes, respectively. Moreover, facile surface modification and intraparticle engineering provide the versatility to make them responsive to various biologically and pathologically important substances and indexes including small‐molecule mediators, proteins, pH and temperature. This article focuses on recent advances in the development of SPN‐based activatable molecular probes for sensing and imaging. The designs and applications of these probes are discussed in details, and the present challenges to further advance them into life science are also analyzed.
Highlights
Activatable probes, such as Molecular probes that change their signals in response to the target of molecular beacons or optical switches, are interest have a critical role in fundamental biology and medicine
Thereby, as compared with the conventional “always on” probes, activatable molecular probes have allow them to be developed into photoluminescence, chemiluminescence, higher signal-to-noise ratio and lower and photoacoustic probes, wherein Semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) usually serve as the energy donor and internal reference for luminescence and photoacoustic probes, respectively
There are some review articles summarizing the synthesis and applications of SPNs.[17d,22a,24a,31] This review focuses on the recent advances in the use of SPN-based activatable probes for sensing and molecular imaging
Summary
Oxygen is an important physiological index and the deprivation of oxygen is usually related to some pathological conditions such as tumor growth,[32] diabetic retinopathy[33] and rheumatoid arthritis.[34]. The molecular oxygen was able to be ratiometrically detected (Figure 2b). A phosphorescent SP containing Ir(III) complex (P2) was synthesized and transformed into the nanoparticles for naked-eye detection of oxygen in aqueous solution (Figure 2a).[36] The intrapolymer FRET existed within SPN-P2 probe, leading to the phosphorescence from the Ir(III) complex. S. degree in Biochemical Engineering from Zhejiang University in 2012 and 2015, respectively She is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, under the supervision of Prof. Dr Kanyi Pu received his PhD from the National University of Singapore in 2011 followed by a postdoctoral study at Stanford University School of Medicine He joined the School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering (SCBE) at Nanyang Technological (NTU) an Associate Professor in 2015. The SPN-P2 probe was found to produce singlet oxygen under irradiation at 488 nm, showing its potential for photodynamic therapy (PDT)
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