Recent Advances in Fluorescent Nanoparticles for Stimulated Emission Depletion Imaging

• Published in: Biosensors (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 7; p. 314
• Main Authors: Qi, Liqing, Liu, Songlin, Ping, Jiantao, Yao, Xingxing, Chen, Long, Yang, Dawei, Liu, Yijun, Wang, Chenjing, Xiao, Yating, Qi, Lubin, Jiang, Yifei, Fang, Xiaohong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 21.06.2024
• Subjects: Biocompatibility; Biological activity; Biological properties; Brightness; Depletion; Dyes; Dynamic structural analysis; Emissions; fluorescence nanoparticle; fluorescence probes; Fluorescent Dyes - chemistry; Fluorescent indicators; Humans; Image resolution; Imaging techniques; Lasers; Light; luminescent materials; Medical research; Microscopy; Microscopy, Fluorescence; Nanoparticles; Optical properties; Photobleaching; Polymers; Probes; Proteins; Quantum Dots; STED; Stimulated emission; super-resolution imaging; Toxicity; fluorescence probes; super-resolution imaging; luminescent materials; STED; fluorescence nanoparticle
• ISSN: 2079-6374; 2079-6374
• DOI: 10.3390/bios14070314

Stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopy, as a popular super-resolution imaging technique, has been widely used in bio-structure analysis and resolving the dynamics of biological processes beyond the diffraction limit. The performance of STED critically depends on the optical properties of the fluorescent probes. Ideally, the probe should process high brightness and good photostability, and exhibit a sensitive response to the depletion beam. Organic dyes and fluorescent proteins, as the most widely used STED probes, suffer from low brightness and exhibit rapid photobleaching under a high excitation power. Recently, luminescent nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as promising fluorescent probes in biological imaging due to their high brightness and good photostability. STED imaging using various kinds of NPs, including quantum dots, polymer dots, carbon dots, aggregation-induced emission dots, etc., has been demonstrated. This review will comprehensively review recent advances in fluorescent NP-based STED probes, discuss their advantages and pitfalls, and outline the directions for future development.