Recent progress in the development of upconversion nanomaterials in bioimaging and disease treatment

Gaofeng Liang,Guangda Li,Jinghua Li,Haojie Wang,Haitao Wang,Hao Shi,Mengxi Zhu,Aihua Jing

doi:10.1186/s12951-020-00713-3

Gaofeng Liang, Guangda Li + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12951-020-00713-3

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Abstract

Multifunctional lanthanide-based upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs), which feature efficiently convert low-energy photons into high-energy photons, have attracted considerable attention in the domain of materials science and biomedical applications. Due to their unique photophysical properties, including light-emitting stability, excellent upconversion luminescence efficiency, low autofluorescence, and high detection sensitivity, and high penetration depth in samples, UCNPs have been widely applied in biomedical applications, such as biosensing, imaging and theranostics. In this review, we briefly introduced the major components of UCNPs and the luminescence mechanism. Then, we compared several common design synthesis strategies and presented their advantages and disadvantages. Several examples of the functionalization of UCNPs were given. Next, we detailed their biological applications in bioimaging and disease treatment, particularly drug delivery and photodynamic therapy, including antibacterial photodynamic therapy. Finally, the future practical applications in materials science and biomedical fields, as well as the remaining challenges to UCNPs application, were described. This review provides useful practical information and insights for the research on and application of UCNPs in the field of cancer.

Highlights

Traditional surgery and chemotherapy often lead to infection and recurrently [1]
When the photocleavable linker (PhL) and PEG film are irradiated at 980 nm, the Upconversion luminescent nanoparticles (UCNPs) tear off the PEG film to stimulate the activation of HA to release reactive oxygen species (ROS) in order to assist small interfering RNAs (siRNA) in effectively increasing gene-silencing efficiency and inhibiting tumor cell growth in vivo and in vitro simultaneously [147]
Conclusions and future perspectives In this review, we briefly described the structure and energy level principle of UCNPs and introduced several methods for the synthesis and modification of UCNPs based on chemical matrix reactions

Summary

Introduction

Traditional surgery and chemotherapy often lead to infection and recurrently [1]. Biotherapeutics including the emerging photodynamic therapy (PDT), which involves precise treatment of tumor cells by in situ generations of singlet oxygen, have proven to be effective disease treatment techniques. The entire reaction process requires high temperature and closed reaction vessel conditions [72, 73], and the solution show a variety of excellent advantages for preparing lanthanide-based UCNPs at room temperature, such as increased of solubility and ion activity [74, 75].

Results

Conclusion