Emerging Applications of Aggregation-Induced Emission Luminogens in Bacterial Biofilm Imaging and Antibiofilm Theranostics

Threats posed by recalcitrant bacterial biofilms have been continuously challenging the public health due to the dramatically magnified antibiotic resistance resulted from the complicated biofilm microenvironment. Urgent demands on effective biofilm combating have propelled the rapid exploration of high-performance antibiofilm systems. Thanks to the distinguished features of aggregation-intensified fluorescence and aggregation-enhanced generation of reactive oxygen species, aggregation-induced emission luminogens (AIEgens) are becoming increasingly eye-catching in the field of biofilm combating by serving as excellent fluorescence imaging probes or theranostic agents. This review aims to, for the first time, outline the current progress of AIEgens in bacterial biofilm imaging and antibiofilm theranostics. The up-to-date advancements of AIEgens in enzyme-responsive biofilm imaging, discriminative imaging of Gram-positive bacterial biofilm, as well as biofilm viability monitoring are summarized at first. Subsequently, the antiadhesion intervention-mediated prevention of biofilm formation and photodynamic therapy-involved eradication of preexisting biofilms are detailedly elucidated. Finally, a brief conclusion as well as a discussion on the current challenges and future expectations is presented.