Lanthanide-Doped Upconversion Nanoparticles for Super-Resolution Microscopy

• Main Authors: Hao Dong, Ling-Dong Sun, Chun-Hua Yan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-01-01
• Series: Frontiers in Chemistry
• Subjects: upconversion nanoparticle; super-resolution microscopy; lanthanide; STED; multiphoton imaging
• Online Access: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fchem.2020.619377/full

Super-resolution microscopy offers a non-invasive and real-time tool for probing the subcellular structures and activities on nanometer precision. Exploring adequate luminescent probes is a great concern for acquiring higher-resolution image. Benefiting from the atomic-like transitions among real energy levels, lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticles are featured by unique optical properties including excellent photostability, large anti-Stokes shifts, multicolor narrowband emissions, tunable emission lifetimes, etc. The past few years have witnessed the development of upconversion nanoparticles as probes for super-resolution imaging studies. To date, the optimal resolution reached 28 nm (λ/36) for single nanoparticles and 82 nm (λ/12) for cytoskeleton structures with upconversion nanoparticles. Compared with conventional probes such as organic dyes and quantum dots, upconversion nanoparticle-related super-resolution microscopy is still in the preliminary stage, and both opportunities and challenges exist. In this perspective article, we summarized the recent advances of upconversion nanoparticles for super-resolution microscopy and projected the future directions of this emerging field. This perspective article should be enlightening for designing efficient upconversion nanoprobes for super-resolution imaging and promote the development of upconversion nanoprobes for cell biology applications.