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Upconversion Nanoparticle as a Platform for Photoactivation

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Phosphors, Up Conversion Nano Particles, Quantum Dots and Their Applications

Abstract

Photoactivation technology is a very powerful tool in chemical biology, as light is a remote, bio-orthogonal, fast-acting stimulus to activate effectors (such as chemically caged drugs, hormones, peptides, proteins, or genetic materials already deposited in a living subject being studied) with high spatiotemporal resolution and minimal invasion. However, most of the photoactivable compounds only respond to ultraviolet (UV), which has phototoxicity in the living organism and very poor penetration depth in biological tissue. Photoactivation technology based on lanthanide-doped upconversion nanoparticle (UCNP), which can upconvert NIR to visible or even UV band, provides a mean to overcome the shortcomings of traditional UV photoactivation techniques. The upconverted UV provides spatiotemporally restricted photochemical reactions near the particle surface in nanometer regime and hence results in minimal photodamage in the subject being studied. NIR light source also enhanced the penetration depth when applied to the uncaging technique in deep biological tissue. Unlike two-photon technology, UCNP-assisted photoactivation does not require an expensive light source or redeveloping the large cross-sectional photoprotecting groups. The aim of this chapter is to address the recent developments in photoactivation technology with an emphasis on upconversion luminescence-assisted photolysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Chemistry, Academia Sinica, 128 Academia Road, Section 2, Nankang, Taipei, 11529, Taiwan

    Pounraj Thanasekaran, Hua-De Gao & Hsien-Ming Lee

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  1. Pounraj Thanasekaran
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  2. Hua-De Gao
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  3. Hsien-Ming Lee
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Correspondence to Hsien-Ming Lee .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University Department of Chemistry, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ru-Shi Liu

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Thanasekaran, P., Gao, HD., Lee, HM. (2016). Upconversion Nanoparticle as a Platform for Photoactivation. In: Liu, RS. (eds) Phosphors, Up Conversion Nano Particles, Quantum Dots and Their Applications. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1590-8_13

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