Mitochondria-targeted smart AIEgens: Imaging and therapeutics

Mitochondria are not only the main energy source of the cell but are also involved in the regulation of important physiology and processes of diseases including cancers. Therefore, mitochondria have been regarded as an important research target to reveal the mechanism of disease regulation and tumor treatment. Compared to conventional probes, thanks to their merits including resistance to aggregationcaused quenching capability, larger Stokes shift, high photostability, good biocompatibility as well as easy preparation, aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) have become one of the research hotspots. Intriguingly, numerous mitochondria-targeted smart AIEgens have been fabricated in recent year to dynamically monitor behaviors of mitochondria or effectively kill tumors through activating mitochondria-regulated cell death pathways. In this review, we provide the systematic information of working mechanisms of aggregation-induced emission (AIE), design principles of mitochondriatargeted AIEgens, examples of AIEgnes for imaging mitochondria and detecting bio-species in mitochondria, and the relevant biomedical applications in theranostics. Additionally, the challenges and prospects of mitochondria-targeted AIEgens for imaging and therapeutics are also presented. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Mitochondria, as the main energy source of cells, play important roles in the regulation of physiology and diseases. Aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) have become a research hotspot due to their unique properties, and can be used to dynamically monitor mitochondrial behaviors and effectively kill tumors through regulating cell death pathways. This review provides systematic information on the working mechanism of aggregation-induced emission, design principles of mitochondria-targeted AIEgens, examples of AIEgens for imaging and detecting bio-species in mitochondria, and their biomedical applications.