In this paper, near-infrared emitting long-persistence luminescent Zn3Ga2Ge2O10:Cr3?(ZGG) nanoparticles with diameters of 30–100 nm and bright luminescence were prepared by a sol–gel synthesis method. After the surface amination, the nanoparticles were further bioconjugated with breast cancer-specific monoclonal antibody(anti-Ep CAM) to form ZGG-Ep CAM nanoprobes which can specifically target breast cancer cell lines(MCF7) in vitro. The results of in vitro images show that the luminescence signals from the cells treated with ZGG-Ep CAM nanoprobes are stronger than those from cells treated with ZGG-unconjugated antibody, indicating that the prepared ZGG-Ep CAM nanoprobes possessed excellent specific recognition capability. Furthermore, due to their long afterglow properties, the imaging could persist more than 1 h. Therefore, these nanoprobes could not only provide a high specificity detection method for cancer cells but also realize the long-time monitoring. Developed near-infrared emitting long-persistence luminescent nanoprobes will be expected to find new perspectives for cell therapy research and diagnosis applications.