Recent advances in lysosome-targeting luminescent transition metal complexes

Lysosomes are important organelles in animal cells, and play a crucial role in many cellular processes. Inspired by the clinical success of the archetypal metallodrug cis-platinum and benefiting from the rapid advances made in cell imaging technology, luminescent transition metal complexes have recently been developed for the visualization and monitoring of lysosomes and their contents, as well as image-guided therapy. We herein give an overview of lysosome-targeting luminescent transition metal complexes recently reported in the literature. The design principles, localization detection methods and lysosomal integrity assessment methods are summarized. Based on their properties, the complexes are presented in four categories: probes, sensors, metallodrugs, and photosensitizers. We conclude by highlighting some of the challenges which face future work in this field.