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Advances and challenges for fluorescence nanothermometry

Nature Methods volume 17, pages 967–980 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

Fluorescent nanothermometers can probe changes in local temperature in living cells and in vivo and reveal fundamental insights into biological properties. This field has attracted global efforts in developing both temperature-responsive materials and detection procedures to achieve sub-degree temperature resolution in biosystems. Recent generations of nanothermometers show superior performance to earlier ones and also offer multifunctionality, enabling state-of-the-art functional imaging with improved spatial, temporal and temperature resolutions for monitoring the metabolism of intracellular organelles and internal organs. Although progress in this field has been rapid, it has not been without controversy, as recent studies have shown possible biased sensing during fluorescence-based detection. Here, we introduce the design principles and advances in fluorescence nanothermometry, highlight application achievements, discuss scenarios that may lead to biased sensing, analyze the challenges ahead in terms of both fundamental issues and practical implementations, and point to new directions for improving this interdisciplinary field.

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Fig. 1: Typical temperature-sensing strategies and working mechanisms of different nanothermometers.
Fig. 2: Examples of intracellular and in vivo temperature sensing with fluorescent nanothermometers.
Fig. 3: Factors that often induce artifacts and biased temperature readouts.
Fig. 4: New designs of temperature-responsive materials.
Fig. 5: Examples of new modalities for accurate sensing.
Fig. 6: Temperature monitoring and imaging of mitochondria in live cells.
Fig. 7: High temperature resolution, reliability and volumetric thermometry are needed for in vivo applications.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Award Scheme (J. Z., DE180100669; B. R., DE200100985), the Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme at the University of Technology Sydney (J. Z.) and RMIT University (B. R.), the Ministerio de Economı́a y Competitividad-MINECO (MAT2016-75362-C3-1-R), the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of Spain (PID2019-106211RB-I00) and the Comunidad de Madrid (B2017/BMD-3867 RENIM-CM) co-financed by European Structural and Investment Fund, the European Commission Horizon 2020 project NanoTBTech and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research B, 17H03075).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Biomedical Materials & Devices (IBMD), Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    Jiajia Zhou & Dayong Jin

  2. ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale Biophotonics, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia

    Blanca del Rosal

  3. Nanobiology Group, Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria, IRYCIS, Madrid, Spain

    Daniel Jaque

  4. Fluorescence Imaging Group, Departamento de Física de Materiales–Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Daniel Jaque

  5. Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Seiichi Uchiyama

  6. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Guangdong, China

    Dayong Jin

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Correspondence to Jiajia Zhou or Daniel Jaque.

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Zhou, J., del Rosal, B., Jaque, D. et al. Advances and challenges for fluorescence nanothermometry. Nat Methods 17, 967–980 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-020-0957-y

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