Dong Hao, Sun Ling-Dong, Yan Chun-Hua
Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Materials Chemistry and Applications, PKU-HKU Joint Laboratory in Rare Earth Materials and Bioinorganic Chemistry, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China.
College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou, China.
Front Chem. 2021 Jan 15;8:619377. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2020.619377. eCollection 2020.
Super-resolution microscopy offers a non-invasive and real-time tool for probing the subcellular structures and activities on nanometer precision. Exploring adequate luminescent probes is a great concern for acquiring higher-resolution image. Benefiting from the atomic-like transitions among real energy levels, lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles are featured by unique optical properties including excellent photostability, large anti-Stokes shifts, multicolor narrowband emissions, tunable emission lifetimes, etc. The past few years have witnessed the development of upconversion nanoparticles as probes for super-resolution imaging studies. To date, the optimal resolution reached 28 nm (λ/36) for single nanoparticles and 82 nm (λ/12) for cytoskeleton structures with upconversion nanoparticles. Compared with conventional probes such as organic dyes and quantum dots, upconversion nanoparticle-related super-resolution microscopy is still in the preliminary stage, and both opportunities and challenges exist. In this perspective article, we summarized the recent advances of upconversion nanoparticles for super-resolution microscopy and projected the future directions of this emerging field. This perspective article should be enlightening for designing efficient upconversion nanoprobes for super-resolution imaging and promote the development of upconversion nanoprobes for cell biology applications.
超分辨率显微镜提供了一种非侵入性的实时工具，用于在纳米精度上探测亚细胞结构和活动。探索合适的发光探针是获取更高分辨率图像的一大关注点。受益于真实能级之间类似原子的跃迁，镧系掺杂上转换纳米粒子具有独特的光学性质，包括优异的光稳定性、大的反斯托克斯位移、多色窄带发射、可调发射寿命等。在过去几年中，上转换纳米粒子作为超分辨率成像研究的探针得到了发展。迄今为止，使用上转换纳米粒子，单个纳米粒子的最佳分辨率达到了28纳米（λ/36），细胞骨架结构的最佳分辨率达到了82纳米（λ/12）。与有机染料和量子点等传统探针相比，基于上转换纳米粒子的超分辨率显微镜仍处于初级阶段，机遇与挑战并存。在这篇观点文章中，我们总结了上转换纳米粒子用于超分辨率显微镜的最新进展，并展望了这一新兴领域的未来方向。这篇观点文章对于设计用于超分辨率成像的高效上转换纳米探针应该具有启发性，并促进用于细胞生物学应用的上转换纳米探针的发展。
