Multifunctional AIEgens for Future Theranostics.
The combination of diagnosis and therapeutics into one theranostics system has attracted great interest in life science and biomedical fields. The current theranostic platform largely relies on the integration of multiple materials with different functionalities. The all-in-one approach has the risk of high complicity with reduced reproducibility. Smart design of simple molecules born with multifunctions should represent one of the future directions in theranostics. Fluorogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIEgens) are one type of such smart materials, which have attracted increasing attentions in recent years. In this concept, the key frontier developments of simple AIEgens with multifunctions for imaging and therapy are presented, which include fluorescence-photoacoustic imaging, fluorescence-magnetic resonance imaging, fluorescence image-guided photodynamic therapy, fluorescence image-guided chemotherapy and photoacoustic image-guided photothermal therapy. The smart molecular design to endow each AIEgen with strong capability to simultaneously offer two or more theranostic functions should attract more scientists into this exciting research direction.
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, 117585, Singapore.
Guangxue
G
Feng
Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore, 4 Engineering Drive 4, 117585, Singapore.|Institute of Materials Research and Engineering (IMRE), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 2 Fusionopolis Way, Innovis, 136834, Singapore.
Bin
B
Liu
D061848:Optical Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D010778:Photochemotherapy / Q000379:methods; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D000068936:Theranostic Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods
aggregation-induced emission; bioimaging; cancer therapy; multifunctional materials; theranostics