title: Near-infrared upconversion nanoparticles for bio-applications.
abstract: Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNs) attract intensive attentions in biomedical applications. They have shown great potential in bioimaging, biomolecule detection, drug delivery, photodynamic therapy and cellular molecules interactions. Due to the anti-Stokes optical property and NIR excitation, UCNs overcome the drawbacks encountered in conventional luminescent biomarkers. High signal to noise ratio, low cytotoxicity and stable high throughput results are obtained using UCNs as luminescent labels or light triggers in biomedical applications. In this review article, the reason for choosing UCNs as biomedical agents, the progress of the UCNs development and case studies of their biomedical applications will be discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602, Singapore.
authors.forename: Qing Qing
authors.initials: QQ
authors.lastname: Dou
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602, Singapore.
authors.forename: Hong Chen
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), 3 Research Link, Singapore 117602, Singapore. Electronic address: yeey@imre.a-star.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Enyi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ye
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007259:Infrared Rays; D007834:Lasers; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D010778:Photochemotherapy; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents / Q000737:chemistry / Q000627:therapeutic use; D034622:RNA Interference; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering
keywords: Multi-modality; NIR upconversion; Photo activation; Photodynamic therapy