Conjugated polymers for enhanced bioimaging

Background: Conjugated polymers (CPs) have been used for creating bioimaging tools or biosensors that provide a direct link between spectral signal and different biological processes. The detection schemes of these sensors are mainly employing the efficient light harvesting properties or the conformation sensitive optical properties of the CPs. Hence, the presence of biomolecules or biological events can be detected through fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the CP and an acceptor molecule, or through their impact on the conformation of the conjugated backbone, which is seen as an alteration of the optical properties of the CP.

Scope of the review: In this review, the utilization of CPs for sensitive detection of DNA and protein conformational changes will be presented. The main part will be focused on the specific binding of CPs to protein deposits associated with protein misfolding diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the discovery that tailor-made CPs can be used for in vivo optical imaging of protein aggregates will be discussed.

Major conclusions: The unique optical properties of CPs can be used as molecular tools for sensitive detection of genetic material and for characterization of the pathological hallmarks associated with protein misfolding disorders, such as AD.

General significance: CPs are novel molecular tools that can be used for sensitive bioimaging of biological processes and these tools offer the possibility to study biological events in a complementary fashion to conventional techniques. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled Nanotechnologies - Emerging Applications in Biomedicine.