Key Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Institute of Fine Chemicals, East China University of Science and Technology, 130# Meilong Road, Shanghai, 200237, China.
Adv Mater. 2015 Mar 11;27(10):1647-62. doi: 10.1002/adma.201403783. Epub 2015 Feb 5.
Light can be used as an external trigger to precisely determine where and when a process is initiated as well as how much of the process is being consumed. Phototriggers are a type of photoresponsive functional group that undergo an irreversible photolysis reaction by selectively breaking a chemical bond, enabling three fundamental functions: the photoactivation of fluorescent and bioactive molecules; the photocleavable degradation of macromolecular materials; and the photorelease of drugs, active groups, or surface charges from carriers and interfaces. With the expanded applications of light-controlled technology, particularly in living systems, new challenges and improvements of phototriggers are required to fulfill the demands for better sensitivity, faster kinetics, and more-demanding biomedical applications. Here, improvements to several conventional phototriggers are highlighted, and their notable, representative biomedical applications and their challenges are discussed.
光可以作为外部触发因素，精确地确定过程何时何地开始以及过程消耗了多少。光触发剂是一种光响应性功能基团，通过选择性地打破化学键发生不可逆的光解反应，从而实现三种基本功能：荧光和生物活性分子的光激活；大分子材料的光降解；以及药物、活性基团或载体和界面上表面电荷的光释放。随着光控技术的应用不断扩大，特别是在生命系统中，需要改进光触发剂以满足更好的灵敏度、更快的动力学和更苛刻的生物医学应用的需求。在这里，重点介绍了几种传统光触发剂的改进，并讨论了它们在显著的、有代表性的生物医学应用及其面临的挑战。
