Abstract
Dye molecules such as fluorescent dyes and photosensitizers have been utilized for pathological diagnosis and medical treatment on life science and clinical medicine. For the fluorescent visualization of pathological sites such as tumors inside bodies, the fluorescent dyes need to be accumulated into the pathological site. The photoirradiation to the photosensitizers accumulated in tumors induces the cell death for cancer treatment. The drug delivery system, which regulates the selective and efficient delivery of these dyes to the pathological site is important for not only the live-cell imaging but also the whole-body imaging. In addition, the regulation of the fluorescence intensity and the photosensitizing ability of these dyes has been attempted by precisely designing their molecular structure. In this review, we introduce the recent progress of fluorescent probes and photosensitizers, and discuss the future progress in this research area.
