Recent Research Progress of ¹⁹F Magnetic Resonance Imaging Probes: Principle, Design, and Their Application

Visualization of biomolecules, cells, and tissues, as well as metabolic processes in vivo is significant for studying the associated biological activities. Fluorine magnetic resonance imaging (¹⁹ F MRI) holds potential among various imaging technologies thanks to its negligible background signal and deep tissue penetration in vivo. To achieve detection on the targets with high resolution and accuracy, requirements of high-performance ¹⁹ F MRI probes are demanding. An ideal ¹⁹ F MRI probe is thought to have, first, fluorine tags with magnetically equivalent ¹⁹ F nuclei, second, high fluorine content, third, adequate fluorine nuclei mobility, as well as excellent water solubility or dispersity, but not limited to. This review summarizes the research progresses of ¹⁹ F MRI probes and mainly discusses the impacts of structures on in vitro and in vivo imaging performances. Additionally, the applications of ¹⁹ F MRI probes in ions sensing, molecular structures analysis, cells tracking, and in vivo diagnosis of disease lesions are also covered in this article. From authors' perspectives, this review is able to provide inspirations for relevant researchers on designing and synthesizing advanced ¹⁹ F MRI probes.