Advances in BODIPY photocleavable protecting groups

• A general introduction on Photocleavable Protecting Groups (PPGs) is discussed. • Developments and perspectives of BODIPY based PPGs are reviewed. • Photolysis mechanism and biological activities of BODIPY PPGs are discussed. Photoactivatable protecting groups (PPGs) or caged compounds are beneficial tools for spatiotemporal controlled release of bioagents, fluorescent probes, polymerization initiators and gasotransmitters such as carbonmonoxide, nitric oxide, and hydrogen sulfide. Most of the reported PPGs absorbs in the UV light, suffers from poor tissue penetrations and undesirable photochemical transformation whereas visible/NIR light has better tissue penetration and less bio autofluorescence and has attracted researchers to develop PPGs activated by visible/NIR light. Thus, visible/NIR light absorbing BODIPY PPGs with easily tunable spectral properties and low phototoxicity are used for non-invasive photorelease of protecting groups. The review will mainly focus on the advance research on the molecular designing, spectroscopic properties, structure activity relationship, discussions of photorelease mechanisms and applications (wherever applicable) of visible/red light absorbing photoactivatable BODIPY fluorophore as PPGs. We strongly believe that this review will present a broad perspective for BODIPY dyes as PPGs and provide guidance to the beginners and young researchers for the rational designing of BODIPY based fluorescent dyes of biological importance.