AIE active polymers for biological applications

Abstract

The discovery of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) phenomenon, significantly altered the understanding of the scientific world about the luminophore aggregation. Polymers with AIE features have recently emerged as promising materials with wide range of applications in optoelectronics devices, chemosensors, bioimaging, cancer theranostics and drug delivery. By introducing the AIE active molecule into the polymer structure, novel materials encompassing the characteristics properties of both the functional materials such as excellent brightness, versatile structure modification, high biocompatibility, exceptional stability and facile processability are achieved. This chapter presents the advances in synthetic design as well as potential biological applications of AIE active polymers, beginning with a brief introduction to the AIE phenomenon. The versatile synthetic route, easier functionalization, and light up feature of the AIE active polymers offer direct visualization of the physiological processes within or outside the living organisms. This chapter also precisely describes the photodynamic therapy/photothermal therapy (PDT/PTT) with up-to-date advancement of AIE active polymer and their emerging applications in biomedical field. The AIE active Photosensitizers (PSs) are much more efficient in singlet oxygen (¹O₂) production than their small molecule AIE active PSs due to their enhanced inter system crossing (ISC) process and improved light-harvesting ability. Additionally, the present chapter aims to focus on all recent AIE active polymers for drug screening and drug delivery. The AIE active polymer often shows decent drug loading capacity, high stability and good biocompatibility comprising image guided drug monitoring features. Lastly, the concluding discussion reveals the future prospective of the AIE active polymers.

Keywords: Aggregation induced emission; Drug delivery; Fluorescence; Imaging; Macromolecules; Naphthalimide; Polymers; Sensors; Therapy.