Recent advances in organelle-specific two-photon small-molecule fluorescent probes for bioanalysis in live tissues

Abstract

Biological events occur in specific cellular organelles to perform specialized roles in cells and collaborate with other organelles. Various methods have been used to study organelle dynamics, including two-photon microscopy. This technique uses two near-infrared photons as an excitation source to generate high-resolution images over an extended period with minimal photo-toxicity and background noise. This review highlighted the design strategies, photo-physical properties, and bioimaging applications of recent two-photon probes for organelles in live samples. In this review, we focused on the development of two-photon probes specifically localized in the endoplasmic reticulum, Golgi, lipid droplets, lysosomes, plasma membrane, and mitochondria. The summary was limited to research from 2017 onwards.