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Accounts of Chemical Research

ConspectusReactivity-based organic bioprobes have been increasingly designed and developed in the last couple of years to address important questions in numerous fields, particularly in biology and medicine. Contrary to the conventional lock-and-key bioprobes, which rely on molecular recognition to probe biological systems and impart sensing specificity, reactivity-based bioprobes capitalize on molecular reactivity for selective target detection. In fact, reactivity-based sensing exploits the intrinsic differences in chemical reactivity to differentiate various chemical species possessing similar size and shape in biological systems. This unique sensing mechanism has been effective for the detection of a wide range of chemical analytes in living cells, tissues, and animals, although bioprobes with additional functionalities are increasingly required in the quest to unravel and understand the complex biological systems. This is why the integration of diagnostic and therapeutic functions in one theranostic plat...

Reactivity-Based Organic Theranostic Bioprobes