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The recent strategies in the design and biological applications of the carbazole-based chemosensors have been summarized and highlighted for the first time. • The general significance of developing the small-molecule carbazole derivatives. • Recent advances in the strategies to design the carbazole-based fluorescent probes. • The diverse biological applications of the carbazole-based fluorescent probes. • Challenges of existing probes with the carbazole scaffold in bioimaging. • The prospects of the carbazole-based fluorescent probes for future applications. Carbazole derivatives have been receiving extensive attention owing to the merits of favorable donor ability, good planarity, rich photophysical properties, and excellent biocompatibility. In recent years, carbazole-based small molecular fluorescent probes have developed rapidly and extensively utilized for bioimaging, providing abundant and valuable information for studying important life processes. Although the topic of carbazole-based fluorescent probes for bioimaging is important and frontier, no review focused on this hot subject so far. Thus, in this tutorial review, we firstly summarize and highlight the recent advances in design, photophysical properties, and biological applications of carbazole-based probes. In order to legibly and intuitively grasp the topic, this work was classified into five parts according to the sensing targets detected by carbazole-based probes. Accordingly, we provide an overview of recent advances of carbazole derivatives for bioimaging in the perspective of biological applications of the carbazole chemosensors toward ionic species, reactive sulfur species (RSS), reactive oxygen species (ROS), biomacromolecules, microenvironment and others. Several representative examples for each bio-application have been reviewed, and all these cases demonstrate that carbazole derivatives could act as a robust tool for monitoring biomolecules in living systems. Moreover, with the assistance of fluorescence imaging, some carbazole-based probes can be employed to feedback the subtle concentration changes of biomarkers at the disease sites, greatly facilitating the significant advances in cell biology and medical diagnostic imaging. In addition, we also discuss the unsolved problems and future challenges in the terms of synthesis and biological application of carbazole derivatives. Future attention should be focused on the designing carbazole-based probes involving near-infrared emission and multiple sites to improve detection efficacy and provide more biological information. More importantly, great effort and collaboration from different communities of chemists, physicists and biologists are required to translating laboratory feasibility of carbazole derivatives to clinical practicability. This review herein will promote new progress and improvements of novel carbazole-based probes for further exploring life events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent progress of organic fluorescence probes for simultaneous sensing of nucleic acid and associated cellular components in living organisms have been reviewed for the first time. • The significance of simultaneous imaging nucleic acid and cellular components. • The sensing mechanisms of probes for nucleic acids and cellular components. • The application of these reviewed probes in living systems. • The outlook of probes for sensing nucleic acids and associated cellular components. Nucleic acid, including deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA), acts a vital role in the gene expression process and it is the prime source for storing, duplicating and transferring the genetic information in all eukaryotic cells. Some associated cellular components may lead to changes in location, number and morphology of nucleic acid, which are closely related to several diseases. Thus, it is of highly significant to simultaneously sense nucleic acid and associated cellular components with organic fluorescent chemsensors. However, this interesting and frontier topic has not been reviewed so far. Therefore, it is important to summarize the recent advances in organic fluorescent probes for simultaneous sensing of nucleic acid and related cellular components in living systems. Thus, in this review, we focus on the recent progress in the design strategies, sensing mechanisms, and the applications of organic fluorescence probes for simultaneous sensing of nucleic acid and associated cellular components in living organisms. This critical review may promote the development of more robust fluorescent probes for simultaneous imaging nucleic acid and associated cellular components in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • A systematic summary of the Si O Si bridged materials for bioimaging has been presented for the first time. • This review describes our recent works for the design and synthesis of fluorescent probes to detect various species. • It is urgent to develop general strategies to achieve concise regulation of fluorescence properties with desired structures. Fluorescence imaging is one of the most powerful methods for the spatial and temporal visualization of bio-species in living systems. Various fluorescent materials have obtained intense and continuous attention, including small-molecule organic fluorophores, luminescent transition metal complex, emissive polymers, and fluorescent proteins. Organosilicon materials, bearing Si O Si bonds, are important sorts of functional platforms exhibiting great applications in various fields such as catalysis, energy, and bioscience, due to their unique electronic, optical, and biocompatibility properties. Fluorescent materials based on Si O Si bridged materials have presented new potential for imaging biological processes in living systems. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the roles that Si O Si bonds play is instructive for further designing of organosilicon fluorescent materials. This review highlights the recent trends in the development of fluorescent organosilicon compounds as powerful tools for bioimaging within diverse living systems and summarizes the roles of Si O Si bonds acted in bioimaging. Besides, we put outlooks forward for the field of fluorescent organosilicon materials and their prospective functions as materials for bioimaging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent developments of organic fluorescence probes for detecting mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) have been reviewed for the first time. • The significance of designing organic fluorescent probes for the detection of MMP. • The design concept and recognition mechanisms of the fluorescent probes for the detection of MMP. • The advantages and limitations of the fluorescent probes in the application to detect MMP. • The perspectives of the organic fluorescent probes for sensing MMP. Mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), as a key indicator of mitochondrial function, can reflect the cellular health status. The dysfunction of MMP, even the subtle unusual changes, can greatly affect the intracellular bioactivities, causing various diseases, such as keratitis, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease and even cancer. Thus, detecting the variation of MMP has great significance for biological research and medical diagnosis. Due to the advantages of real-time and in-situ monitoring, a variety of organic fluorescent probes have been developed in recent years for the detection of MMP. However, this interesting and frontier topic has not been reviewed so far. In this review, we will focus on several kinds of recent organic fluorescent probes that have provided insights into MMP detection, including design concepts, responding mechanisms and applications of the representative examples. In addition, there are still some shortcomings and limitations of existing fluorescent probes on MMP detection, such as susceptible to interference, unquantifiable detection, and lack of clinical application. This critical review may promote the development of more robust MMP fluorescent probes, providing more powerful tools for researching basic biology to improve cancer diagnoses and treatments in clinics in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]