Metal‐Organic Frameworks‐Based Fluorescent Nanocomposites for Bioimaging in Living Cells and in vivo^†

Abstract

Metal‐organic frameworks (MOFs) as a class of porous functional materials have attracted more and more attention for biomedical applications. To date, MOFs have been developed for bioimaging based on a series of advantages such as the large surface areas, high porosity, fluorescence functionalities and good biocompatibility. It is worth noting that organic or inorganic fluorescent materials such as fluorescent dyes, quantum dots, metal nanoclusters and nanosheets can combine MOFs or be encapsulated in MOFs to form fluorescent nanocomposites for excellent imaging function. Importantly, excellent imaging capabilities are of great significance in living cells and in vivo for detection, diagnosis and cancer therapy. In this review, we focus on the recent research of the bioimaging in living cells and in vivo based on various MOF‐based nanocomposites and their potential biological clinical applications.

Porphyrin NanoMetal-Organic Frameworks as Cancer Theranostic Agents

“…Porphyrins and analogues (chlorins and benzoporphyrins) are popular fluorophores and have long been incorporated into NMOFs for both in vitro and in vivo fluorescence imaging [ 72 ]. With the combination of fluorescence and photosensitivity from porphyrins, imaging-guided therapy nanosystems can be constructed based on porphyrin NMOFs to more efficiently visualise tumours [ 73 ].…”

A Triphenylphosphonium Functionalized AIE Conjugated Macrocyclic Tetramaleimide for Mitochondrial‐targeting Bioimaging

“…Up to now, numerous fluorescent probes for mitochondrial localization based on organic dyes such as BODIPY, [ 13 ] Rhodamines, [ 14‐15 ] and inorganic materials such as rare earth metal complexes [ 16 ] and semiconductor quantum dots (QDs), [ 17 ] as well as metal‐organic frameworks‐based fluorescent nanocomposites [ 18 ] have been reported. Unfortunately, organic dyes based bioimaging probes often suffer from unwanted aggregation caused a quenching (ACQ) effect in water‐soluble environment.…”

Heterostructures Made of Upconversion Nanoparticles and Metal–Organic Frameworks for Biomedical Applications

“…[ 7 ] Development of post‐modification strategy has imparted MOFs with additional chemical functionalities [ 8 ] and largely boosted their application potential, especially in biomedical areas. [ 9 ] Recently, much efforts have been devoted to integrate MOFs with other nanomaterials, such as metal NPs, [ 10 , 11 , 12 ] carbon nanotube, [ 13 ] and even another MOFs, [ 14 ] to construct multifunctional heterostructures. Such structures not only retain the properties of MOFs but also bestow with other attractive functions from their counterparts, therefore achieving synergistic effect for enhanced performance.…”