Conjugated Polyelectrolytes as New Platforms for Drug Screening

In recent years, conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) have attracted increasing attention for their applications in highly sensitive biosensors by taking advantage of their unique optical amplification properties. In comparison to previous applications tailored for highly sensitive biomacromolecule detection, this Focus Review highlights recent research efforts in the development of water-soluble CPEs as a new class of optical platforms for the screening of potential drugs. Three types of biological targets for the search of small-molecule active drugs are described: nucleic acids, enzymes, and RNA-protein complexes. Future research directions for drug screening based on CPEs are also presented.