Photosensitizers with Aggregation-induced Emission and Their Biomedical Applications

Microorganisms and cancer have always been the fierce enemies of human beings, but the traditional methods of treating them still have many defects. Therefore, it is extremely important to develop rapid, effective and safe treatments. Photodynamic Therapy (PDT) has attracted much attention because of its advantages of non-invasive, non-drug tolerance, high selectivity and low toxicity. As a result, more and more scientists are committed to developing better photosensitizers to enhance the efficiency of PDT in the therapy of microorganisms as well as tumors. The discovery of aggregation-induced emission (AIE) phenomenon provides a novel research direction for the progress of photosensitizer and brings a broader prospect for PDT. This review focuses on the recent progress of photosensitizers (PSs) with AIE properties in PDT from two aspects of anti-microbial and anti-cancer. Among them, anti-microbial aspects were introduced from the perspectives of anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-viral aspects, while anti-cancer aspects were first introduced from the perspective of different target sites of photosensitizers, and then based on the modification of their own structures. Finally, the current limitations, challenges and future development of AIE photosensitizer (AIE-PSs) are clarified in view of the existing strategies and obstacles, so as to promote the development of AIE-PSs in the future clinical applications.