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Activatable smart contrast agents for photoacoustic imaging.

Donghyeon Oh¹, Jihye Lee^2,3, Suyoung Park^4,5

¹Departments of Electrical Engineering Convergence IT Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Medical Science and Engineering Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) Pohang Republic of Korea.

Smart Molecules : Open Access

|July 1, 2026

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Activatable photoacoustic imaging (PAI) contrast agents offer dynamic molecular contrast for deep tissue visualization. These advanced probes enable real-time adaptation and biomarker detection beyond conventional imaging limits.

Area of Science:

Biomedical Imaging
Molecular Imaging
Nanotechnology

Background:

Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) combines optical contrast with ultrasound penetration for deep physiology visualization.
Conventional contrast agents have fixed properties, limiting adaptation to changing disease environments.
Activatable probes offer dynamic spectral switching for enhanced PAI.

Purpose of the Study:

To review advances in molecular design, activation chemistry, and biomedical applications of activatable PAI contrast agents.
To highlight strategies for noninvasive diagnosis, multimodal imaging, and theranostics.
To discuss future directions, including pathology-tailored probes and quantitative PAI tomography.

Main Methods:

Survey of recent literature on activatable PAI contrast agents.

Keywords:

activatable photoacoustic contrast agent photoacoustic imaging probing trigger

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Analysis of molecular design and activation chemistry.

Review of biomedical applications and future translation strategies.

Main Results:

Activatable agents respond to exogenous triggers or endogenous cues, enabling real-time spectral switching.
These probes allow user-controlled activation, background suppression, and biomarker access.
Applications include diagnosis, multimodal imaging, remote actuation, and theranostics.

Conclusions:

Activatable PAI contrast agents significantly enhance imaging capabilities beyond conventional methods.
Future research focuses on pathology-tailored probes for novel biomarker detection, such as in atherosclerosis.
Translation requires optimizing probe safety, standardization, and integrating quantitative PAI tomography.