Perylenediimide-cored dendrimers and their bioimaging and gene delivery applications

In the past few years, perylenediimide-cored (PDI-cored) dendrimers have been successfully prepared and applied in various fields. In this review, we focus on the structural design and synthesis strategies of PDI-cored dendrimers that involve convergent and divergent synthesis approaches. When building the outer shell of PDI-cored dendrimers, first hydrophobic and then hydrophilic macromolecules are introduced. The advantages of water-soluble PDI-cored dendrimers include strong red fluorescence, excellent photostability, low cytotoxicity, high quantum yield, and versatile surface modification. The biological application of water-soluble PDI-cored dendrimers is broad, including fluorescence live-cell imaging, fluorescent labeling, and gene delivery, owing to the rapid development of these materials in the past decade. The challenges and outlooks in this field will also be discussed.