Recent advances in lanthanide-doped up-conversion probes for theranostics

Danyang Xu; Chenxu Li; Wenjing Li; Bi Lin; Ruichan Lv

doi:10.3389/fchem.2023.1036715

Recent advances in lanthanide-doped up-conversion probes for theranostics

Front Chem. 2023 Feb 9:11:1036715. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2023.1036715. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Danyang Xu¹, Chenxu Li¹, Wenjing Li¹, Bi Lin¹, Ruichan Lv¹

Affiliation

¹ Engineering Research Center of Molecular and Neuro Imaging, Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.

Abstract

Up-conversion (or anti-Stokes) luminescence refers to the phenomenon whereby materials emit high energy, short-wavelength light upon excitation at longer wavelengths. Lanthanide-doped up-conversion nanoparticles (Ln-UCNPs) are widely used in biomedicine due to their excellent physical and chemical properties such as high penetration depth, low damage threshold and light conversion ability. Here, the latest developments in the synthesis and application of Ln-UCNPs are reviewed. First, methods used to synthesize Ln-UCNPs are introduced, and four strategies for enhancing up-conversion luminescence are analyzed, followed by an overview of the applications in phototherapy, bioimaging and biosensing. Finally, the challenges and future prospects of Ln-UCNPs are summarized.

Keywords: biomedicine; lanthanide-doped; probes for theranostics; up-conversion; up-conversion luminescence.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Nos. 81801744 and 91859202), the National Key R&D Program of China Grant (No. 2017YFA0205202) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities.