Aggregation induced emission-based fluorescent nanoparticles: fabrication methodologies and biomedical applications

Novel fluorescent nanoparticle (FNP)-based bioprobes are expected to generate new medical diagnostic techniques in biomedical and biological areas for their superior brightness and photostability compared with conventional molecular probes including small organic dyes and fluorescent proteins. Potentially interesting nanoscale platforms for various biomedical applications are greatly attractive due to the potential to avoid exposure of human tissues to toxic drugs, enhancing delivery of hydrophobic therapeutics and fabricating multifunctional imaging, targeting and delivery system. In this review, recent progress in the area of novel aggregation induced emission (AIE)-based FNPs is summarized over the past few years (2007-2013), and the reported fabrication methodologies of these fluorescent systems including non-covalent and covalent strategies are mainly discussed, and the biomedical applications of AIE-based FNPs are also summarized.