Persistent Luminescence Nanoparticles in Phototheranostics: Recent Progress and Translational Outlook

Phototheranostics has become a precise medicine paradigm by virtue of its spatiotemporal switch characteristic. Thanks to the excitation, energy storage and afterglow emission mechanism and the efficient excitation of broadband light sources, persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) effectively overcome the bottlenecks of traditional fluorescent probes, such as background fluorescence, photobleaching and insufficient penetration depth. It has shown unique application prospects in phototheranostics. This review follows a multimodal excitation, afterglow performance and biological application roadmap to systematically introduce the latest progress of PLNPs-based phototheranostics. Besides, the prospects and challenges of its clinical transformation were deeply dissected, with the aim of providing theoretical guidance for PLNPs to move from laboratory innovation to clinical application.