Recent Advances in the use of Fluorescent Nanoparticles for Bioimaging

Abstract

Rapid and recent progress in fluorescence microscopic techniques has allowed for routine discovery and viewing of biological structures and processes in unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution. In these imaging techniques, fluorescent nanoparticles (NPs) play important roles in the improvement of reporting systems. A short overview of recently developed fluorescent NPs used for advanced in vivo imaging will be discussed in this mini-review. The discussion begins with the contribution of fluorescence imaging in exploring the fate of NPs in biological systems. NP applications for in vivo imaging, including cell labeling, multimodal imaging and theranostic agents, are then discussed. Finally, despite all of the advancements in bioimaging, some unsolved challenges will be briefly discussed concerning future research directions.

Understanding nanoparticle endocytosis to improve targeting strategies in nanomedicine

“…Nevertheless, besides the labeling of endocytic markers, NPs should also be tagged with fluorophores or some NPs can inherently emit specific optical signals (e.g., QDs and AuNPs). 231,232 The identification of the internalization process of NPs is usually performed via fluorescence co-localization analysis of endocytic biological markers and NPs. 233 This approach allows determining whether both, i.e.…”

Recent chemo‐/biosensor and bioimaging studies based on indole‐decorated BODIPYs

“…In the last decades, many researchers have focused on developing diverse molecular bioimaging techniques for visualization and characterization of cellular functions, understanding complex interactions of molecular processes, and measuring these processes in living organisms. Among many proposed imaging techniques such as electron, optical and X‐ray microscopy and magnetic resonance imaging, optical imaging based on fluorescence has emerged as a sensitive and accurate method using different wavelengths emitted by fluorescent molecules . Due to limitations of the conventional fluorescent probes, indole‐decorated BODIPY scaffolds were proposed as a novel system in the design of bioimaging probes for visualization of different analytes.…”

“…Among many proposed imaging techniques such as electron, optical and X-ray microscopy and magnetic resonance imaging, optical imaging based on fluorescence has emerged as a sensitive and accurate method using different wavelengths emitted by fluorescent molecules. [89,90] Due to limitations of the conventional fluorescent probes, indole-decorated BODIPY scaffolds were proposed as a novel system in the design of bioimaging probes for visualization of different analytes. For this purpose, Dong et al [91] synthesized two novel meso-indoles substituted by NO 2 or NH 2 moieties linked to the BODIPY molecule.…”

Theranostic Designed Near-Infrared Fluorescent Poly (Lactic-co-Glycolic Acid) Nanoparticles and Preliminary Studies with Functionalized VEGF-Nanoparticles

“…Despite the extensive work with the PLGA in the therapeutic field, they have not been extensively explored as an imaging tool in humans [ 47 , 48 ]. Despite the recent progress in nanomedicine, the imaging depth-limit of fluorescence does not allow the application of these NPs for human diagnostic purposes [ 49 ]. For this reason, our strategy was to use fluorescent-PLGA-NPs as screening probes to assess pharmacokinetic, tumor targeting, and T/M ratio of native and functionalized PLGA-NPs.…”