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  • Review Article
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Solving the oxygen sensitivity of sensitized photon upconversion in life science applications

Nature Reviews Chemistry volume 2, pages 437–452 (2018)Cite this article

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A Correction to this article was published on 29 November 2018

This article has been updated

Abstract

The conversion of low-energy light into high-energy light, also known as upconversion, can be exploited in life science applications such as bioimaging and phototherapy. Sensitized triplet–triplet annihilation upconversion (sTTA-UC) is one type of upconversion in which a photosensitizer is excited using a low-energy light and then transfers energy to an annihilator that emits at much higher energy. Changing the molecular components enables the fine-tuning of excitation and emission wavelengths. sTTA-UC is an appealing approach because it results in high upconversion efficiencies. However, its sensitivity to the presence of dioxygen in living cells and biological tissues is problematic. In this Review, the essential requirements of sTTA-UC for bio-nanodevices and life science applications are outlined before discussing the different ways to circumvent the dioxygen sensitivity of sTTA-UC.

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Fig. 1: Upconversion for photoactivated chemotherapy.
Fig. 2: Typical power dependency of upconversion emission in a sTTA-UC mechanism.
Fig. 3: Oxygen sensitivity of triplet–triplet annihilation upconversion.
Fig. 4: Chemical strategies to prevent quenching of sTTA-UC by triplet or singlet dioxygen.
Fig. 5: Protecting sTTA-UC in vesicles using antioxidants.
Fig. 6: In vitro and in vivo imaging with sTTA-UC nanoparticles.
Fig. 7: Upconversion luminescence imaging of polymersomes in living A549 cells.
Fig. 8: In vivo activation of a coumarin–chlorambucil prodrug, and antitumour activity of the photoreleased anticancer drug.

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Change history

  • 29 November 2018

    Equation 2 in the original version of the article should read:

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO-CW) via an Innovational Research Incentives Scheme (VIDI) grant to S.B. The European Research Council is kindly acknowledged for a Starting Grant to S.B. E. Bouwman is gratefully acknowledged for her support and input.

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    Sven H. C. Askes & Sylvestre Bonnet

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Prodrugs

Compounds that are introduced in a living organism in a chemical form that is not biologically active but that, once in the living organism, transform into a drug molecule that is biologically active.

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Nano-sized or micro-sized vesicles, the membrane of which is made of amphiphilic block copolymers.

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Askes, S.H.C., Bonnet, S. Solving the oxygen sensitivity of sensitized photon upconversion in life science applications. Nat Rev Chem 2, 437–452 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41570-018-0057-z

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