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Polymer nanoparticles that absorb near-infrared light can be used for photoacoustic imaging with clear advantages over existing contrast agents.

Urinary reporters leveraging caged bioorthogonal click handles for the biomarker-dependent activation of ‘clickability’ and renal clearance allow for the monitoring, in urine, of the efficacy of chemotherapy and of associated kidney injury in mice.

Here, the authors present the design, molecular assembly and mechanistic insights into an organic, biomarker-activatable radiotheranostic nanoprobe for image-guided precision cancer radiotherapy with sensitivity up to a depth of 15 cm in thick tissues.

Semiconducting polymer nanoparticles are used to image toxic reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species in live mice.

Photodynamic immunotherapy is promising for cancer therapy, but its efficacy is often hampered by hypoxia and immunosuppressive conditions within the tumor microenvironment. Here, the authors report the design guidelines for efficient Type-I semiconducting polymer photosensitizers and the development of a hypoxia-tolerant polymeric photosensitizer prodrug for cancer photo-immunotherapy.

Gold-siRNA clusters boost the immune response of radiotherapy against primary and distant tumors.

Organic luminophores emit a bright near-infrared afterglow after X-ray irradiation and outperform commercially available radio sensitizers by producing higher levels of singlet oxygen, having potential applications in precision cancer theranostics.

Expanding the responsive dyes repertoire is currently a developing field in biorthogonal chemistry. In this article, the authors develop fluorophores that turn on their near-infrared fluorescence upon biorthogonal reaction based on a “torsion-induced disaggregation” approach, allowing for sensitive in vivo imaging of tumors.

Cryogenic microneedle patches can deliver mammalian cells before dissolving into the skin, as shown with the transdermal delivery of ovalbumin-pulsed dendritic cells in mice with subcutaneous tumours.

Proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) is an effective alternative to modulate protein homeostasis but can lead to uncontrollable protein degradation and off-target side effects. Here, the authors developed semiconducting polymer nano-PROTACs with phototherapeutic and activatable protein degradation abilities for photo-immunometabolic cancer therapy.

Precise control of immune response remains challenging for cancer immunotherapy. Here, the authors report on photothermally activatable semiconducting polymeric pro-agonist in response to second near-infrared window light for regulated photothermal immunotherapy.

Dual-locked optical probes change their optical signals when they respond to two biomarkers of interest. This facilitates real-time imaging of multiple interrelated biomarkers in living systems and, thus, provides opportunities to better understand pathological events and enhanced diagnostic specificity.

Due to tumour microenvironment, Fenton reactions have low therapeutic efficiency. Here the authors report on the application of NIR-II hybrid semiconducting nanozymes for combined photothermal therapy and enhanced ferrotherapy with photoacoustic imaging and show application in vivo in tumour models.

Ultrasound-induced luminescence in trianthracene derivative-based nanoparticles enables tumour imaging and immunological profiling in a variety of in vivo models.

A library of renally cleared fluorescence probes that are activated only in the presence of both tumour and leukocyte biomarkers allows for the tracking of specific populations of tumour-infiltrating leukocytes in vivo and in urine.

This Review discusses recent advances in afterglow materials for biomedical applications, the distinct imaging modalities that these agents enable and strategies to optimize their properties for improved disease diagnosis and therapies.

Ultrasound-based therapies in combination with immune checkpoint blockade have been shown to improve the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. Here the authors report the design of a pH-responsive and sono-irradiation activatable nanosystem functionalized with anti-PD-L1 and adenosine deaminase for sono-metabolic cancer immunotherapy.

To improve the specificity of immunotherapy, here the authors report the design of a semiconducting polymer immunomodulatory nanoparticle with sonodynamic process to remotely release immune-modulators for deep-tissue precision cancer sono-immunotherapy.

Nanoparticles producing ultrasound-induced afterglow luminescence in the presence of a tumour biomarker allow for the image-guided treatment of mice bearing subcutaneous tumours.

Early cancer detection typically involves invasive biopsies. Here the authors designed nanosensors that are depolymerized by disease-associated enzymes in vivo to produce fluorescent urinary signals for non-invasive early diagnosis.

Deep-brain stimulation in freely behaving mice can be achieved via wide-field near-infrared illumination and stereotactically injected photothermal transducers activating neurons ectopically expressing a temperature-sensitive cation channel.

Chemiluminescent molecular renal probes have been developed and are shown to be capable of non-invasive real-time imaging of early-stage oxidative stress biomarkers of drug-induced acute kidney injury, and high renal clearance.

Afterglow luminescence is used to reduce background noise and increase sensitivity; however, biocompatible afterglow materials are limited. Here, the authors report on an approach to turn standard optical agents into afterglow nanoparticles and demonstrate the application in tumour imagining in vivo.

Ultra-high signal-to-background in vivo imaging is enabled by biocompatible semiconducting polymer nanoparticles.

Organic luminogens with persistent room temperature phosphorescence will find wide applications in optoelectronic devices and bioimaging, but they are still scarce. Here, the authors synthesize seven organic luminogens and investigate their different properties and potential imaging applications.

Liquid metals are excellent candidate materials for biomedicine, owing to their intriguing optical properties and chemical stability. Here, the authors design multifunctional theranostic liquid metal nanocapsules that, upon irradiation, generate heat and reactive oxygen species and change shape to release drugs.

Microfluidic platforms are an attractive setup for performing clinical tests but integrated liquid mixing and bioseparation is difficult at small scales. Here Xiong et al. propose magnetic nanochains which can stir the solution and capture agents and thus enable liquid analysis in a short amount of time.

This is a protocol for the synthesis of ultrasound-sensitive probes that emit sonoafterglow with bright near-infrared emission that are suitable for the deep-tissue imaging of peroxynitrite, a biomarker for M1 macrophages and proinflammatory microenvironments.

This Review highlights recent progress in the development of molecular probes for the selective imaging of specific immune cells to aid understanding of the immune system, as well as disease diagnosis and prognosis.

Traditional urinalysis relies on endogenous biomarkers, which have limited diagnostic sensitivity and specificity. This Review discusses molecular optical probes that interact with disease biomarkers in vivo and produce artificial urinary biomarkers, which are excreted into urine for remote urinalysis.

In situ self-assembly is advantageous for cancer therapy and imaging because of the efficient deep-tumour targeting, enhanced blood circulation and negligible drug resistance of the resulting nanomedicines. This Review discusses extracellular and intracellular in situ self-assembly based on endogenous and exogenous stimuli for cancer therapy and imaging applications.

Intravenously injected renal-clearable optical agents (RCOAs) are rapidly cleared by the kidneys, allowing disease diagnosis and treatment by optical imaging, while avoiding unwanted tissue accumulation and adverse effects. This Review discusses the design of RCOAs for kidney imaging, kidney injury detection, cancer theranostics, intraoperative image-guided surgery and optical urinalysis.