Strategies to Enhance the Photosensitization: Polymerization and the Donor–Acceptor Even–Odd Effect

Modulation of intramolecular freedom for tuning fluorescence imaging and photooxidation of amyloid-β aggregates

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is distinguished by amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition and plaque formation, prompting significant interest in fluorescence imaging and photooxidation of Aβ aggregates for diagnostic and intervention purposes. However, the molecular engineering required to modulate fluorescence imaging and photooxidation of Aβ presents notable challenges. Here, we present the design of four small molecules (BTD-SZ, BTD-YD, BTD-TA-SZ, and BTD-TA-YD) aimed at investigating the influence of intramolecular freedom of movement on imaging and photooxidation. Notably, BTD-SZ exhibits exceptional fluorescence properties, offering promising potential for non-invasive detection of Aβ plaques in vivo. Furthermore, by converting dimethylamine into triphenylamine to restrict intramolecular freedom of movement in the aggregate state, we synthesized a photosensitizer denoted as BTD-TA-SZ. This compound demonstrates aggregation-induced photooxidation (AIP), effectively impeding Aβ aggregation under light irradiation in vivo. Thus, the modulation of intramolecular freedom of movement emerges as a pivotal molecular engineering strategy for developing photosensitizers for the diagnosis and intervention of AD, offering insights into innovative approaches for combating this debilitating condition.

In Vivo Fluorescence Imaging-Guided Development of Near-Infrared AIEgens

In vivo fluorescence imaging has received extensive attention due to its distinguished advantages of excellent biosafety, high sensitivity, dual temporal-spatial resolution, real-time monitoring ability, and non-invasiveness. Aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) with near-infrared (NIR) absorption and emission wavelengths are ideal candidate for in vivo fluorescence imaging for their large Stokes shift, high brightness and superior photostability. NIR emissive AIEgens provide deep tissue penetration depth as well as low interference from tissue autofluorescence. Here in this review, we summarize the molecular engineering strategies for constructing NIR AIEgens with high performances, including extending π-conjugation system and strengthen donor (D)-acceptor (A) interactions. Then the encapsulation strategies for increasing water solubility and biocompatibility of these NIR AIEgens are highlighted. Finally, the challenges and prospect of fabricating NIR AIEgens for in vivo fluorescence imaging are also discussed. We hope this review would provide some guidelines for further exploration of new NIR AIEgens.

Redox- and pH-Responsive Water-Soluble Flexible Organic Frameworks Realize Synergistic Tumor Photodynamic and Chemotherapeutic Therapy

Water-soluble 3D polymers with inherent nanoscale pores have been shown to be ideal platforms for the inclusion and delivery of drugs and hold a great promise as biocompatible materials for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Herein, a low cytotoxic water-soluble flexible organic framework FOF-S6 with a hydrodynamic diameter of about 127.5 nm is synthesized through the formation of a hydrazone bond from a semirigid tetraaldehyde and a flexible biacylhydrazines which contains a disulfide bond (1:2). FOF-S6 has the ability to dissociate and release inclusion complexes in response to weakly acidic media and glutathione (GSH) overexpressed in tumor cells. More importantly, a facile strategy is developed to contain and deliver aggregation-induced emission photosensitizers (AIE PS, TBD-DQA-540) and chemotherapeutic drugs (Doxorubicin hydrochloride, DOX). DOX-PS@FOF-S6 is synthesized by a one-pot method, which can realize efficient photo-chemotherapy under the guidance of fluorescence imaging, thereby improving the multidrug resistance of tumor cells and the instability of photosensitizers, so as to improve the tumor treatment efficacy.

Unusual Electron Donor-Acceptor sequenced NIR AIEgen for Highly Efficient Mitochondria-Targeted Cancer Cell Photodynamic Therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is recognized to be a promising strategy for anticancer treatment. Considering the progressive application of PDT in clinical trials, highly efficient and photostable photosensitizers (PSs) are in strong demand. Aggregation-induced emission (AIE) based PSs are promising phototheranostic materials for tumor imaging and PDT due to their high fluorescence efficiency and photostability. Herein, a mitochondria-targeted PS, TPA-2TCP with AIE characteristics is developed by adopting an acceptor-π-donor-π-acceptor (A-π-D-π-A) structure. The untypical sequence of the electron donors and electron acceptors endows the derived AIE PS with evident redshift of the absorption and emission, and efficient generation of reactive oxygen species. With the positively charged pyridinium groups, nanoparticulated AIE PS (TPA-2TCP NPs) exhibits high cell binding efficiency towards 4T1 breast cancer cells, leading to the massive cell death via the apoptotic pathway under white light irradiation, demonstrating its potential application in cancer imaging and PDT.

Click Synthesis Enabled Sulfur Atom Strategy for Polymerization-Enhanced and Two-Photon Photosensitization

Facile tailoring of photosensitizers (PSs) with advanced and synergetic properties is highly expected to broaden and deepen photodynamic therapy (PDT) applications. Herein, a catalyst-free thiol-yne click reaction was employed to develop the sulfur atom-based PSs by using the in situ formed sulfur "heavy atom effect" to enhance the intersystem crossing (ISC), while such an effect can be remarkably magnified by the polymerization. The introduction of a tetraphenylpyrazine-based aggregation-induced emission (AIE) unit was also advantageous in PS design by suppressing their non-radiative decay to facilitate the ISC in the aggregated state. Besides, the resulting sulfur atom electron donor, together with a double-bond π bridge and AIE electron acceptor, created a donor-π-acceptor (D-π-A) molecular system with good two-photon excitation properties. Combined with the high singlet oxygen generation efficiency, the fabricated polymer nanoparticles exhibited an excellent in vitro two-photon-excited PDT towards cancer cells, therefore possessing a huge potential for the deep-tissue disease therapy.

Biomineralization of Aggregation-Induced Emission-Active Photosensitizers for pH-Mediated Tumor Imaging and Photodynamic Therapy

As an efficient, noninvasive, and high spatiotemporal resolved approach, photodynamic therapy (PDT) has high therapeutic potential for cancer treatment, whereas its development still faces a number of challenges, such as the lack of efficient and stable photosensitizers (PSs) and the inadequate ability of PSs to accumulate at tumor sites and target responses. Herein, a pH-responsive calcium carbonate (CaCO₃)-mineralized AIEgen nanoprobe was prepared by using bovine serum albumin as the skeleton and loaded with a mitochondria-specific aggregation-induced emission (AIE)-active PS of 1-methyl-4-(4-(1,2,2-triphenylvinyl)styryl)quinolinium iodide (TPE-Qu⁺), which exhibits superior singlet oxygen (¹O₂)-generation ability and meanwhile possesses a bright near-infrared fluorescence emission. The biomineralized nanoparticles have small sizes (100 ± 10 nm) with good water dispersion and stability. With an increase in acidity (pH = 7.4-5.0), the internal TPE-Qu⁺ molecules are released gradually and accumulated in the mitochondria due to their hydrophobicity and electropositivity and then generate fluorescence emission and PDT under an external light source. Tumor inhibition and low acute toxicity were further successfully confirmed by the intracellular uptake test and 4T1-tumor-bearing mouse model.

Incorporating spin-orbit coupling promoted functional group into an enhanced electron D-A system: A useful designing concept for fabricating efficient photosensitizer and imaging-guided photodynamic therapy

Intersystem crossing (ISC) is of great significance in photochemistry, and has a decisive influence on the properties of photosensitizers (PSs) for use in photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, the rationally design PSs with efficient ISC processes to implement superb reactive oxygen species (ROS) production is still a very challenging work. In this contribution, we described how a series of high-performance PSs were constructed through electron acceptor and donor engineering by integrating the smaller singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔE_ST) and larger spin-orbit coupling (SOC)-beneficial functional groups into the PS frameworks. Among the yielded various PSs, TaTIC was confirmed as the best candidate for application in PDT, which was due to its most outstanding ROS generation capability, bright near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence with peak over 840 nm, as well as desired aggregation-induced emission (AIE) features. Importantly, the ROS generation efficiency of TaTIC was even superior to that of some popularly used PSs, including the most reputable PS of Rose Bengal. In order to further extend therapeutic applications, TaTIC was encapsulated with biocompatible amphiphilic matrix and formulated into water-dispersed nanoparticles (NPs). More excitedly, the as-prepared TaTIC NPs gave wonderful PDT performance on tumor-bearing mouse model, actualizing complete tumor elimination outcomes. Coupled with excellent biosecurity, TaTIC NPs would be a promising theranostic agent for practical clinical application.

Conjugated Polymers with Aggregation-Induced Emission Characteristics for Fluorescence Imaging and Photodynamic Therapy

Accurate diagnosis and treatment have been extensively developed in the field of biomedicine, which put forward higher requirements for the development of biomedical materials with high efficiency and selectivity. Among them, conjugated polymers featuring aggregation-induced emission (AIE) characteristics (AIE conjugated polymers) have stood out in recent years owing to their unique properties, such as intense solid emission, high light-harvesting ability, efficient energy transfer, and high ¹ O₂ generation ability, which empower them with effective biomedical functions in fluorescence imaging (FLI), photodynamic therapy (PDT), FLI-guided PDT, two-photon excited photodynamic therapy (2PE-PDT), etc. In this review, we highlight recent progress in AIE conjugated polymers and their applications in anticancer and antibacterial areas based on FLI and PDT, and summarize the mechanism of color-tuned fluorescence emission and efficient ¹ O₂ generation ability. The challenges and perspectives for the future development of AIE conjugated polymers are also discussed.

An NIR-II-Emissive Photosensitizer for Hypoxia-Tolerant Photodynamic Theranostics

As a common feature in a majority of malignant tumors, hypoxia has become the Achilles' heel of photodynamic therapy (PDT). The development of type-I photosensitizers that show hypoxia-tolerant PDT efficiency provides a straightforward way to address this issue. However, type-I PDT materials have rarely been discovered. Herein, a π-conjugated molecule with A-D-A configuration, COi6-4Cl, is reported. The H₂ O-dispersible nanoparticle of COi6-4Cl can be activated by an 880 nm laser, and displays hypoxia-tolerant type I/II combined PDT capability, and more notably, a high NIR-II fluorescence with a quantum yield over 5%. Moreover, COi6-4Cl shows a negligible photothermal conversion effect. The non-radiative decay of COi6-4Cl is suppressed in the dispersed and aggregated state due to the restricted molecular vibrations and distinct intermolecular steric hindrance induced by its four bulky side chains. These features make COi6-4Cl a distinguished single-NIR-wavelength-activated phototheranostic material, which performs well in NIR-II fluorescence-guided PDT treatment and shows an enhanced in vivo anti-tumor efficiency over the clinically approved Chlorin e6, by the equal stresses on hypoxia-tolerant anti-tumor therapy and deep-penetration imaging. Therefore, the great potential of COi6-4Cl in precise PDT cancer therapy against hypoxia challenges is demonstrated.

Triplet Acceptors with a D-A Structure and Twisted Conformation for Efficient Organic Solar Cells

Triplet acceptors have been developed to construct high-performance organic solar cells (OSCs) as the long lifetime and diffusion range of triplet excitons may dissociate into free charges instead of net recombination when the energy levels of the lowest triplet state (T1 ) are close to those of charge-transfer states (3 CT). The current triplet acceptors were designed by introducing heavy atoms to enhance the intersystem crossing, limiting their applications. Herein, two twisted acceptors without heavy atoms, analogues of Y6, constructed with large π-conjugated core and D-A structure, were confirmed to be triplet materials, leading to high-performance OSCs. The mechanism of triplet excitons were investigated to show that the twisted and D-A structures result in large spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and small energy gap between the singlet and triplet states, and thus efficient intersystem crossing. Moreover, the energy level of T1 is close to 3 CT, facilitating the split of triplet exciton to free charges.

An AIE-Active Conjugated Polymer with High ROS-Generation Ability and Biocompatibility for Efficient Photodynamic Therapy of Bacterial Infections

New, biocompatible materials with favorable antibacterial activity are highly desirable. In this work, we develop a unique conjugated polymer featuring aggregation-induced emission (AIE) for reliable bacterial eradication. Thanks to the AIE and donor-π-acceptor structure, this polymer shows a high reactive oxygen species (ROS)-generation ability compared to a low-mass model compound and the common photosensitizer Chlorin E6. Moreover, the selective binding of pathogenic microorganisms over mammalian cells was found, demonstrating its biocompatibility. The effective growth inhibition of bacteria upon polymer treatment under light irradiation was validated in vitro and in vivo. Notably, the recovery from infection after treatment with our polymer is faster than that with cefalotin. Thus, this polymer holds great promise in fighting against bacteria-related infections in practical applications.

Bright red aggregation-induced emission nanoparticles for multifunctional applications in cancer therapy

Developing multifunctional photosensitizers (PSs) is needed to effectively simplify cancer treatment, but it remains a big challenge. Here, two red-emitting AIE-active, donor-acceptor (D-A) PSs with small ΔE ST and their AIE nanoparticles, are rationally designed and synthesized. The PS1 NPs exhibit bright red-emission with high quantum yield, appropriate 1O2 generation ability and good biocompatibility. More importantly, PS1 NPs can strongly light up the cytoplasm by gently shaking the cells for only 5 s at room temperature, indicating ultrafast staining and mild incubation conditions. In vitro and in vivo cell tracing demonstrate that PS1 NPs can track cells over 14 days, and effectively inhibit tumor growth upon irradiation. To the best of our knowledge, this work is the first example of a PS that integrates image-guided PDT, ultrafast staining and long-term tracing functions, demonstrating the "all-in-one" concept which offers great advantages for potential clinical applications.

Precise Molecular Design for High-Performance Luminogens with Aggregation-Induced Emission

Precise design of fluorescent molecules with desired properties has enabled the rapid development of many research fields. Among the different types of optically active materials, luminogens with aggregation-induced emission (AIEgens) have attracted significant interest over the past two decades. The negligible luminescence of AIEgens as a molecular species and high brightness in aggregate states distinguish them from conventional fluorescent dyes, which has galvanized efforts to bring AIEgens to a wide array of multidisciplinary applications. Herein, the useful principles and emerging structure-property relationships for precise molecular design toward AIEgens with desirable properties using concrete examples are revealed. The cutting-edge applications of AIEgens and their excellent performance in enabling new research directions in biomedical theranostics, optoelectronic devices, stimuli-responsive smart materials, and visualization of physical processes are also highlighted.

Recent advances of AIE dots in NIR imaging and phototherapy

Nanomaterials are indispensable tools for imaging and therapy. Organic dots with aggregation-induced emission characteristics (AIE dots) have emerged as a new nanolight for their ultra-brightness, excellent photostability and biocompatibility. Due to the rotor structures, most of the reported AIE luminogens show short wavelength absorption and emission, an intrinsic disadvantage for their biomedical applications. Recently, more exciting examples reveal that properly designed AIE dots can easily reach NIR emission, excitable by near-infrared (NIR) light via multiphoton processes, which also have great potentials in photoacoustic imaging (PAI) and phototherapy. In this review, we summarize the recent advances of AIE nanomaterials for NIR fluorescence imaging, PAI, image-guided photodynamic and photothermal therapy (PDT and PTT). We highlight various strategies to improve the energy conversion efficiency of AIE dots through controlling different energy decay pathways. With this review, we hope to encourage more precise design of organic nanomaterials for biomedical applications.