Progress in glycosylated aggregation-induced emission materials

Materials with aggregation-induced emission (AIE) effect have excellent optical properties and are widely utilized in chemical sensing, biological probes and other fields. Since most classic AIE fluorogens are hydrophobic, their application was restricted to some extent. In the past 5 years, several glycosylated AIE-active fluorescent probes were synthesized by coupling the AIE cores with hydrophilic carbohydrates in our group and were used for detection of various biomolecules based on the special binding and reaction between these probes and analytes. These glycosylated AIE-active fluorescent probes with better water solubility and biocompatibility have low fluorescence background and low biological toxicity. This review summarized the recent progress on the glycosylated AIE-active fluorescent probes, hoping to expand the applications of AIE materials and provide effective tools for biochemistry research.