Molecular engineering of two-photon fluorescent probes for bioimaging applications.
During the past two decades, two-photon microscopy (TPM), which utilizes two near-infrared photons as the excitation source, has emerged as a novel, attractive imaging tool for biological research. Compared with one-photon microscopy, TPM offers several advantages, such as lowering background fluorescence in living cells and tissues, reducing photodamage to biosamples, and a photobleaching phenomenon, offering better 3D spatial localization, and increasing penetration depth. Small-molecule-based two-photon fluorescent probes have been well developed for the detection and imaging of various analytes in biological systems. In this review, we will give a general introduction of molecular engineering of two-photon fluorescent probes based on different fluorescence response mechanisms for bioimaging applications during the past decade. Inspired by the desired advantages of small-molecule two-photon fluorescent probes in biological imaging applications, we expect that more attention will be devoted to the development of new two-photon fluorophores and applications of TPM in areas of bioanalysis and disease diagnosis.
Molecular Science and Biomedicine Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Collaborative Innovation Center for Chemistry and Molecular Medicine, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, People's Republic of China.
Hong-Wen
HW
Liu
Yongchao
Y
Liu
Peng
P
Wang
Xiao-Bing
XB
Zhang
D000818:Animals; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D036641:Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton
D005456:Fluorescent Dyes