Reisch Andreas, Klymchenko Andrey S
Laboratoire de Biophotonique et Pharmacologie, UMR 7213 CNRS Université de Strasbourg, Faculté de Pharmacie, 74, Route du Rhin, ,67401, ILLKIRCH Cedex, France.
Small. 2016 Apr;12(15):1968-92. doi: 10.1002/smll.201503396. Epub 2016 Feb 22.
Speed, resolution and sensitivity of today's fluorescence bioimaging can be drastically improved by fluorescent nanoparticles (NPs) that are many-fold brighter than organic dyes and fluorescent proteins. While the field is currently dominated by inorganic NPs, notably quantum dots (QDs), fluorescent polymer NPs encapsulating large quantities of dyes (dye-loaded NPs) have emerged recently as an attractive alternative. These new nanomaterials, inspired from the fields of polymeric drug delivery vehicles and advanced fluorophores, can combine superior brightness with biodegradability and low toxicity. Here, we describe the strategies for synthesis of dye-loaded polymer NPs by emulsion polymerization and assembly of pre-formed polymers. Superior brightness requires strong dye loading without aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ). Only recently several strategies of dye design were proposed to overcome ACQ in polymer NPs: aggregation induced emission (AIE), dye modification with bulky side groups and use of bulky hydrophobic counterions. The resulting NPs now surpass the brightness of QDs by ≈10-fold for a comparable size, and have started reaching the level of the brightest conjugated polymer NPs. Other properties, notably photostability, color, blinking, as well as particle size and surface chemistry are also systematically analyzed. Finally, major and emerging applications of dye-loaded NPs for in vitro and in vivo imaging are reviewed.
荧光纳米颗粒（NPs）比有机染料和荧光蛋白亮许多倍，可极大地提高当今荧光生物成像的速度、分辨率和灵敏度。虽然目前该领域主要由无机纳米颗粒主导，尤其是量子点（QDs），但最近出现了一种有吸引力的替代物——包裹大量染料的荧光聚合物纳米颗粒（染料负载纳米颗粒）。这些新型纳米材料受聚合物药物递送载体和先进荧光团领域的启发，可将卓越的亮度与生物可降解性和低毒性结合起来。在此，我们描述了通过乳液聚合和预成型聚合物组装来合成染料负载聚合物纳米颗粒的策略。卓越的亮度需要强大的染料负载能力且不会因聚集导致猝灭（ACQ）。直到最近才提出了几种染料设计策略来克服聚合物纳米颗粒中的ACQ：聚集诱导发光（AIE）、用庞大侧基修饰染料以及使用庞大的疏水抗衡离子。对于可比尺寸的纳米颗粒，所得纳米颗粒现在的亮度比量子点高出约10倍，并已开始达到最亮的共轭聚合物纳米颗粒的水平。还系统地分析了其他特性，尤其是光稳定性、颜色、闪烁以及颗粒大小和表面化学性质。最后，综述了染料负载纳米颗粒在体外和体内成像中的主要及新兴应用。
