The fluorophores with long‐lived fluorescent emission are highly desirable for time‐resolved fluorescence imaging (TRFI) in monitoring target fluorescence. By embedding the aggregates of a thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) dye, 2,3,5,6‐tetracarbazole‐4‐cyano‐pyridine (CPy), in distearoyl‐sn‐glycero‐3‐phosphoethanolamine‐poly(ethylene glycol) (DSPE‐PEG2000) matrix, CPy‐based organic dots (CPy‐Odots) with a long fluorescence lifetime of 9.3 μs (in water at ambient condition) and high brightness (with an absolute fluorescence quantum efficiency of 38.3%) are fabricated. CPy‐Odots are employed in time‐resolved and confocal fluorescence imaging in living Hela cells and in vivo. The green emission from the CPy‐Odots is readily differentiated from the cellular autofluorescence background because of their stronger emission intensities and longer lifetimes. Unlike other widely studied DSPE‐PEG2000 encapsulated Odots which are always distributed in cytoplasm, CPy‐Odots are located mainly in plasma membrane. In addition, the application of CPy‐Odots as a bright microangiography agent for TRFI in zebrafish is also demonstrated. Much broader application of CPy‐Odots is also prospected after further surface functionalization. Given its simplicity, high fluorescence intensity, and wide availability of TADF materials, the method can be extended to develop more excellent TADF Odots for accomplishing the challenges in future bioimaging applications.

The emergence of multidrug resistant bacteria has resulted in plenty of stubborn nosocomial infections and severely threatens human health. Developing novel bactericide and therapeutic strategy is urgently needed. Herein, mesoporous silica supported silver–bismuth nanoparticles (Ag‐Bi@SiO2 NPs) are constructed for synergistic antibacterial therapy. In vitro experiments indicate that the hyperthermia originating from Bi NPs can disrupt cell integrity and accelerate the Ag ions release, further exhibiting an excellent antibacterial performance toward methicillin‐resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). Besides, under laser irradiation, Ag‐Bi@SiO2 NPs at 100 µg mL−1 can effectively obliterate mature MRSA biofilm and cause a 69.5% decrease in the biomass, showing a better therapeutic effect than Bi@SiO2 NPs with laser (26.8%) or Ag‐Bi@SiO2 NPs without laser treatment (30.8%) groups. More importantly, in vivo results confirm that ≈95.4% of bacteria in abscess are killed and the abscess ablation is accelerated using the Ag‐Bi@SiO2 NPs antibacterial platform. Therefore, Ag‐Bi@SiO2 NPs with photothermal‐enhanced antibacterial activity are a potential nano‐antibacterial agent for the treatment of skin infections.

Traditional antibiotic treatment has limited efficacy for the drug-tolerant bacteria present in biofilms because of their unique metabolic conditions in the biofilm infection microenvironment. Modulating the biofilm infection microenvironment may influence the metabolic state of the bacteria and provide alternative therapeutic routes. In this study, photodynamic therapy is used not only to eradicate methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus biofilms in the normoxic condition, but also to potentiate the hypoxic microenvironment, which induces the anaerobic metabolism of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and activates the antibacterial activity of metronidazole. Moreover, the photodynamic therapy-activated chemotherapy can polarize the macrophages to a M2-like phenotype and promote the repair of the biofilm infected wounds in mice. This biofilm infection microenvironment modulation strategy, whereby the hypoxic microenvironment is potentiated to synergize photodynamic therapy with chemotherapy, provides an alternative pathway for efficient treatment of biofilm-associated infections.

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Subcutaneous abscesses caused by drug-resistant pathogens pose a serious challenge to human health. To overcome this problem, here-in an acidity-responsive ag-gregated W/Mo-based poly-oxometalate (POM) was de-veloped for photothermal-enhanced chemodynamic antibacterial...

Inspired by the slight acidic microenvironment, a variety of pH-responsive nanomaterials are designed for high antibacterial therapy through improving the ability of drug penetration and retention to enhance the therapeutic...

Lung cancer causes an extreme threat to human health, and the mortality rate due to lung cancer has not decreased during the last decade. Prognosis or early diagnosis could help reduce the mortality rate. If microRNA and tumor-associated antigens (TAAs), as well as the corresponding autoantibodies, can be detected prior to clinical diagnosis, such high sensitivity of biosensors makes the early diagnosis and prognosis of cancer realizable. This review provides an overview of tumor-associated biomarker identifying methods and the biosensor technology available today. Laboratorial researches utilizing biosensors for early lung cancer diagnosis will be highlighted.

The authors demonstrate a smart and versatile approach for preparing multi-spectral conjugated polymers from a commercial precursor MEH-PPV without tedious synthetic modification. Multi-color CPNs with small size have also been successfully prepared using a modified-reprecipitation procedure for live cell imaging.