Fluorescein-Inspired Near-Infrared Chemodosimeter for Luminescence Bioimaging

Luminescence bioimaging is widely used for noninvasive monitoring of biological targets in real-time with high temporal and spatial resolution. For efficient bioimaging in vivo, it is essential to develop smart organic dye platforms. Fluorescein (FL), a traditional dye, has been widely used in the biological and clinical studies. However, visible excitation and emission limited their further application for in vivo bioimaging. Near infrared (NM) dyes display advantages of bioimaging because of their minimum absorption and photo-damage to biological samples, as well as deep tissue penetration and low auto-luminescence from background in the living system. Thus, some great developments of near-infrared fluorescein-inspired dyes have emerged for bioapplication in vitro and in vivo, In this review, we highlight the advances in the development of the near-infrared chemodosimeters for detection and bioimaging based on the modification of fluorescein inspired dyes naphtho-fluorescein (NPF) and cyanine-fluorescein (Cy-FL).