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Recent progress in metal-based molecular probes for optical bioimaging and biosensing
Yingying Ning1, Guo-Qing Jin2, Meng-Xin Wang2
1Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, PR China; Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Institute for Innovation in Imaging (i(3)), Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, 02129, USA.
This review highlights the design of novel metal-based molecular probes for optical imaging and biosensing. These probes offer advantages for chemical biology, drug discovery, and disease diagnosis.
Area of Science:
- Chemical Biology
- Materials Science
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Biological imaging and biosensing are crucial for understanding molecular events in health and disease.
- Optical imaging offers advantages like high resolution, sensitivity, and safety (no ionizing radiation).
- Metal-based luminescent probes show great promise for in vitro and in vivo applications due to their unique photophysical properties.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the synthetic chemistry approaches for designing metal-based molecular probes.
- To cover recent advancements (last 2 years) in metal-based probes for optical imaging.
- To discuss probes based on d-block transition metals, lanthanides, and multimodal agents.
Main Methods:
- Focus on synthetic chemistry strategies for probe design.
- Analysis of literature published in the last two years.
- Categorization of probes based on metal type (transition metals, lanthanides) and application (imaging, sensing, multimodal).
Main Results:
- Metal complexes offer tunable properties for enhanced optical imaging and biosensing.
- Recent synthetic strategies have led to improved probe performance.
- Diverse metal-based probes are available for various biological applications.
Conclusions:
- Metal-based molecular probes are vital tools in modern chemical biology and diagnostics.
- Continued synthetic chemistry innovation will drive further advancements in optical bioimaging.
- These probes are essential for drug discovery, disease diagnosis, and prognosis.
