Reactive oxygen species, thiols and enzymes activable AIEgens from single fluorescence imaging to multifunctional theranostics

This view focuses on the recent development of ROS, thiols and enzymes activable AIEgens from single fluorescence imaging to multifunctional theranostics. [Display omitted] •The brief summarization of various biomarkers of ROS, thiols and enzymes.•The detailed introduction of AIE based fluorescent chemo-sensors for the detection of the above biomarkers.•The detailed summarize of AIE based image-guided multifunctional theranostics under the activation of the above biomarkers.•The new perspectives in future work based on the development of activable AIEgens in the past decades. Reactive oxygen species (ROS), thiols and enzymes are regarded as important biomarkers in the physiological process. The abnormal levels of the above species are associated with many diseases, developing a fluorescence detection method for biomarkers is of great significance for diseases early diagnosis and therapy. Compared with traditional fluorescent dyes, aggregation-induced emission (AIE) based fluorescent emitters display excellent photostability with minimum aggregation caused quenching (ACQ) effect. Thus, the biomarker-activable AIEgens have attracted much attentions in biomedical research. In addition, many AIE emitters not only act as fluorescent dyes, but serve as promising theranostic agents. The AIE based image-guided multifunctional theranostics under the activation of biomarkers are vital to the precise biomedicine. This view focuses on the recent development of ROS, thiols, and enzymes activable AIEgens from single fluorescence imaging to multifunctional theranostics.