Recent Advances in Dual‐target‐activated Fluorescent Probes for Biosensing and Bioimaging

Abstract

Fluorescent probes have been powerful tools for visualizing and quantifying multiple dynamic processes in living cells. However, the currently developed probes are often constructed by conjugation a fluorophore with a recognition moiety and given signal‐output after triggering with one singly target interest. Compared with the single‐target‐activated fluorescent probes mentioned above, the dual‐target‐activated ones, triggering with one target under stimulus (such as photoirradiation, microenvironment) or another targets, have the advantages of advoiding nonspecific activation and “false positive” results in complicated environments. In recent years, many dual‐target‐activated fluorescent probes have been developed to detect various biologically relevant species. In view of the importance of a comprehensive understanding of dual‐target‐ activated fluorescent probes, a thorough summary of this topic is urgently needed. However, no comprehensive and critical review on dual target activated fluorescent probes has been published recently. In this review, we focus on the dual‐target‐activated fluorescent probes and briefly outline their types and current state of development. In each type, the chemical structure, proposed responsive mechanism and application of probes are highlighted. At last, the challenges and prospective opportunities of every type were proposed.

A Single Organic Fluorescent Probe for the Discrimination of Dual Spontaneous ROS in Living Organisms: Theoretical Approach

“…Obviously, a single target response of a fluorescent probe lacks the required accuracy for understanding disease development, which remains to be improved. Fluorescent probes with double-lock or multi-lock response modes have been popular in recent years [28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]. In this strategy, the fluorescent probe may contain two or more response sites and thus be multi-stimulated.…”