Designing fluorescent probes for accurately analyzing target molecules of interest become fascinating and vital in the view of biology and biomedicine. Conventional fluorescent probes are often obscured by the interference from biological autofluorescence, off-target effects, and a lack of spatiotemporal control. As a newly developed paradigm, photoactivatable fluorescent probes (PFPs), whose sensing or imaging behaviors can be remotely activated by light, provide great potentials in biochemical information acquisition with high spatial and temporal resolution. Over the past decades, substantial progress has been made in designing PFPs for sensing and imaging of biologically active molecules. In this review, we display an overview of current representative strategies and their underlying mechanisms, including light-inducible target recognition, light-controlled enzymatic activity, and photoactivatable fluorophores. Finally, the challenges and prospects in this promising field are featured on the basis of its current development.

从生物学和生物医学的角度出发，设计用于精确分析目标靶分子的荧光探针变得引人入胜且至关重要。常规的荧光探针通常会因生物学自发荧光的干扰，脱靶效应和缺乏时空控制而被遮蔽。作为一种新发展的范例，可光激活荧光探针（PFP）的感测或成像行为可以通过光远程激活，它在生物化学信息获取中具有很高的潜力，具有高时空分辨率。在过去的几十年中，在设计用于感测和成像生物活性分子的PFP方面取得了实质性进展。在这篇评论中，我们概述了当前的代表性策略及其潜在机制，包括光诱导目标识别，光控制的酶活性和可光活化的荧光团。最后，根据其当前的发展特点，对这一有前途的领域提出了挑战和前景。