Less is More: Asymmetric D-A Type Agent to Achieve Dynamic Self-Assembled Nanoaggregates for Long-Acting Photodynamic Therapy.

To enhance the phototheranostic performance, agents with high reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, good tumor-targeting ability, and prolonged retention are urgently needed. However, symmetric donor-acceptor (D-A) type agents usually produce spherical nanoaggregates, leading to good tumor targeting but inferior retention. Rod-like nanoaggregates are desired to extend their retention in tumors; however, this remains a challenge.

One Stone, Two Birds: High-Brightness Aggregation-Induced Emission Photosensitizers for Super-Resolution Imaging and Photodynamic Therapy.

Most aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens exhibit high brightness, excellent photostability, and good biocompatibility, but these AIE-active agents, which kill two birds with one stone to result in applications in both stimulated emission depletion (STED) super-resolution imaging and photodynamic therapy (PDT), have not been reported yet but are urgently needed. To meet the requirements of STED nanoscopy and PDT, D-A-π-A-D type DTPABT-HP is designed by tuning conjugated π spacers. It exhibits red-shifted emission, high PLQY of 32.

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active metallacycles with near-infrared emission for photodynamic therapy.

Multifunctional metallacycles with solid-state emission are highly important in cancer therapy. Here, an aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active metallacycle of DTPABT-MC-R is developed with efficient emission in the NIR region in the solid state (PLQYs = 4.92%).

All-in-One Theranostic Platforms: Deep-Red AIE Nanocrystals to Target Dual-Organelles for Efficient Photodynamic Therapy.

Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) nanoparticles have been widely applied in photodynamic therapy (PDT) over the past few years. However, amorphous nanoaggregates usually occur in their preparation, resulting in loose packing with disordered molecular structures. This still allows free intramolecular motions, thus leading to limited brightness and PDT efficiency.

Recent advances in luminescent materials for super-resolution imaging via stimulated emission depletion nanoscopy.

Stimulated emission depletion (STED) nanoscopy is a promising fluorescence microscopy to detect unresolvable structures at the nanoscale level and then achieve a superior imaging resolution in materials science and biological research. However, in addition to the optimization of the microscope, luminescent materials in STED nanoscopy are also of great significance to obtain imaging, visualization and even long-term tracking at an ultra-high resolution (less than 100 nm), but this is seldom summarized. Based on this consideration, recent progress on STED fluorophores for super-resolution imaging is outlined here, including inorganic fluorophores, fluorescent proteins, organic luminescent materials, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) luminogens, and fluorescent nanoparticles.

A Facilely Synthesized Dual-State Emission Platform for Picric Acid Detection and Latent Fingerprint Visualization.

To achieve a highly efficient, dual-state emission platform for picric acid (PA) detection and latent fingerprint (LFP) visualization, flexible alkyl chains have been facilely attached to the commercial organic dye 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride to provide the target perylenetetracarboxylate molecules PTCA-C4, PTCA-C6, and PTCA-C12. Interestingly, all these molecules exhibited impressive fluorescence characteristics with high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs) of around 93.0 % in dilute solution.