Heterocyclic Organic Compounds as a Fluorescent Chemosensor for Cell Imaging Applications: A Review

Fluorometric determination of different biologically, industrially, and environmentally important analytes is a powerful technique because this technique has excellent selectivity, high sensitivity, rapid photoluminescence response, low cost, applicability to bioimaging, and low detection limit. Fluorescence imaging is a powerful technique for screening different analytes in the living system. Heterocyclic organic compounds have been extensively used as a fluorescence chemosensor for the determination of different biologically important cations like Co²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cu²⁺, Hg²⁺, Ag⁺, Ni²⁺, Cr³⁺, Al³⁺, Pd²⁺, Fe³⁺ Pt²⁺, Mn²⁺, Sn²⁺, Pd²⁺, Au³⁺, Pd²⁺, Cd²⁺, Pb²⁺ and other ions in biological and environmental systems. These compounds also showed significant biological applications such as anti-cancer, anti-ulcerogenic, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, anti neuropathic, antihistaminic, antihypertensive, analgesic, antitubercular, antioxidant, antimalarial, antiparasitic, antiglycation, antiviral anti-obesity, and antibacterial potency. In this review, we summarize the heterocyclic organic compounds based on fluorescent chemosensors and their applications in bioimaging studies for the recognition of different biologically important metal ions.