Biosensing by luminogens with aggregation-induced emission characteristics

Abstract

Fluorescent biosensors are powerful analytical tools for studying biological events in living systems. Luminescent materials with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) attributes have attracted much research interest and have been identified as a novel class of luminogens to develop fluorescent turn-on biosensors with superior sensitivity. In this Tutorial Review, we present an overview of the AIE phenomenon and its mechanism. We summarize the structural design and working principle of AIE biosensors developed recently. Typical examples of AIE biosensors are presented.

‘Aggregation induced emission’ active iridium(iii) complexes with applications in mitochondrial staining

“…Apart from RIM, the appearance of AIE is sometimes explained based on the transition to an intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) 22 or twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) 23 state, a cis-trans isomerisation, 24 molecular planarization, 25 or the formation of J-type aggregates. 20,[26][27][28][29][30][31] Besides the development of new organic AIE materials and their applications, the last decade has been dedicated to the development of efficient solid state emitting materials, especially heavy metal complexes 20,32,33 showing phosphorescence instead of uorescence. Among those heavy metal luminescent compounds, Ir(III) complexes are renowned for their potential applications in the elds of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), 34,35 and vapoluminescent 40 materials because of their superior photophysical properties, long luminescence lifetimes (100 ns to ms), high quantum yields and large Stokes shis (hundreds of nm).…”

A Lysosome‐Targeting AIEgen for Autophagy Visualization

“…AIE luminogens (AIEgens) have been utilized in numerous fl uorescence biosensing systems, including organelle targeting, protein probing, DNA differentiation, and so on. [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] To obtain higher signal-to-noise ratio, hydrophilic groups, charged moieties or peptide chains can be incorporated into their structures to enhance their water solubility and weaken their emission in aqueous media. [ 20 ] In Lysosome is known as the leading player of autophagy.…”

Smart Probe for Tracing Cancer Therapy: Selective Cancer Cell Detection, Image-Guided Ablation, and Prediction of Therapeutic Response In Situ

“…[ 10 ] Opposite to the photophysical phenomenon of ACQ, fl uorogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIEgens) show almost no fl uorescence as molecular species, but bright fl uorescence in aggregates due to restriction of intramolecular motions and prohibition of energy dissipation via nonradiative channels. [ 11 ] The unique features of AIEgens have attracted great attention in biosensing and bioimaging applications. [ 11,12 ] Recently, we and others have also developed theranostic platforms based on AIEgens to monitor the drug activation and therapeutic responses separately.…”

“…[ 11 ] The unique features of AIEgens have attracted great attention in biosensing and bioimaging applications. [ 11,12 ] Recently, we and others have also developed theranostic platforms based on AIEgens to monitor the drug activation and therapeutic responses separately. [ 2c , 3a , 13 ] In view of the exactly opposite photophysical properties of AIEgens and ACQ PSs in the aggregated and dissolved states, it inspires us that they could be combined into a smart responsive probe for multiple purpose imaging and therapy.…”