Luminescent biodetection based on lanthanide-doped inorganic nanoprobes

Sensitive and selective biodetection is essential for many applications in biology and medicine, including protein purification, DNA immunoassay, early cancer diagnosis and therapeutics. Lanthanide-doped inorganic nanoprobes, emerging as an alternative to conventional molecular luminescent probes by overcoming their current limitations, have attracted a reviving interest for a variety of bioapplications due to their distinct optical properties. In this review, we focus on the most recent progress on the development of lanthanide-doped luminescent nano-bioprobes and their biodetection of model analytes, nucleic acids, ions, and disease markers both in vivo and in vitro. In particular, we highlight the typical bioconjugation strategies and detection techniques for different target analytes. Finally, some most important emerging trends and future efforts toward this rapidly growing field are also proposed. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.