Fluorescent probes based on bioorthogonal reactions: Construction strategies and applications

The emergence of bioorthogonal reactions has provided numerous opportunities for the design and fabrication of innovative fluorescence systems, particularly in the analytical field. These bioorthogonal reactions, including copper-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC), Staudinger ligation reaction, strain-promoted alkyne-azide cycloaddition (SPAAC), photoclick reactions, strain-promoted alkyne-nitrone cycloaddition (SPANC), and inverse-electron-demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) reaction, have been extensively employed in the development of fluorescent probes. By combining a wide range of bioorthogonal reaction pairs with diverse fluorophores, fluorescent probes have been created to enable specific and selective sensing of biomolecules, drugs, and other biologically related organic compounds. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the development process of fluorescent probes based on bioorthogonal reactions. It covers the construction strategies, systematic classification, analysis, and applications of these fluorescent probes, while also discussing future prospects in this field.