Qingyuan Innovation Laboratory, 1# Xueyuan Road, Quanzhou, Fujian 362801, China.
MOE Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350116, China.
Chem Soc Rev. 2023 Mar 6;52(5):1672-1696. doi: 10.1039/d2cs00497f.
Photoluminescence (PL) imaging has become a fundamental tool in disease diagnosis, therapeutic evaluation, and surgical navigation applications. However, it remains a big challenge to engineer nanoprobes for high-efficiency imaging and clinical translation. Recent years have witnessed increasing research efforts devoted into engineering sub-10 nm ultrasmall nanoprobes for PL imaging, which offer the advantages of efficient body clearance, desired clinical translation potential, and high imaging signal-to-noise ratio. In this review, we present a comprehensive summary and contrastive discussion of emerging ultrasmall luminescent nanoprobes towards PL bioimaging of diseases. We first summarize size-dependent nano-bio interactions and imaging features, illustrating the unique attributes and advantages/disadvantages of ultrasmall nanoprobes differentiating them from molecular and large-sized probes. We also discuss general design methodologies and PL properties of emerging ultrasmall luminescent nanoprobes, which are established based on quantum dots, metal nanoclusters, lanthanide-doped nanoparticles, and silicon nanoparticles. Then, recent advances of ultrasmall luminescent nanoprobes are highlighted by surveying their latest PL imaging applications. Finally, we discuss existing challenges in this exciting field and propose some strategies to improve PL bioimaging and further propel their clinical applications.
光致发光（PL）成像是疾病诊断、治疗评估和手术导航应用的基本工具。然而，工程纳米探针以实现高效成像和临床转化仍然是一个巨大的挑战。近年来，人们越来越致力于工程亚 10nm 的超小纳米探针用于 PL 成像，其具有高效的体内清除率、理想的临床转化潜力和高成像信噪比的优势。在本综述中，我们对新兴的超小发光纳米探针在疾病的 PL 生物成像方面进行了全面的总结和对比讨论。我们首先总结了尺寸依赖性的纳米生物相互作用和成像特征，说明了超小纳米探针的独特属性和优势/缺点，使其有别于分子探针和大尺寸探针。我们还讨论了新兴超小发光纳米探针的一般设计方法和 PL 特性，这些探针是基于量子点、金属纳米团簇、镧系掺杂纳米粒子和硅纳米粒子建立的。然后，通过调查超小发光纳米探针的最新 PL 成像应用，突出了它们的最新进展。最后，我们讨论了这一令人兴奋的领域中存在的挑战，并提出了一些策略来改善 PL 生物成像并进一步推动其临床应用。
