Advances in fluorescent natural products for imaging localization and biological applications

Natural products play a crucial role in biological activities, yet the quest for novel natural products faces increasing challenges due to the complexities of structural exploration and efficacy evaluation. Besides, traditional methods for evaluating natural products primarily focus on non-fluorescent efficacy studies at animal level or multicellular accumulation level, lacking of intuitive fluorescence presentation at the single cell or organelle level. This limitation disrupts our understanding of the effectiveness of natural products and constrains their biological activities. The most striking example is that fluorescent natural products offer a unique but often overlooked dual function: they not only exhibit biological activities but also may provide real-time fluorescent signals for tracking within biological systems. This review highlights the exciting advances in imaging localization of fluorescent natural products combined with advanced imaging techniques, summarizes the structural characteristics and application criteria of fluorescent natural products, and explores their feasibility in visual localization and biological activities. This synthesis underscores the need for a systematic exploration of fluorescent natural products, towards a transformative impact on drug development and disease understanding.