Nanoaggregate Probe for Breast Cancer Metastasis through Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography and Aggregation‐Induced NIR‐I/II Fluorescence Imaging

Abstract

An activatable nanoprobe for imaging breast cancer metastases through near infrared‐I (NIR‐I)/NIR‐II fluorescence imaging and multispectral optoacoustic tomography (MSOT) imaging was designed. With a dihydroxanthene moiety serving as the electron donor, quinolinium as the electron acceptor and nitrobenzyloxydiphenylamino as the recognition element, the probe can specifically respond to nitroreductase and transform into an activated D‐π‐A structure with a NIR emission band extending beyond 900 nm. The activated nanoprobe exhibits NIR emission enhanced by aggregation‐induced emission (AIE) and produces strong optoacoustic signal. The nanoprobe was used to detect and image metastases from the orthotopic breast tumors to lymph nodes and then to lung in two breast cancer mouse models. Moreover, the nanoprobe can monitor the treatment efficacy during chemotherapeutic course through fluorescence and MSOT imaging.

A tumor microenvironment–induced absorption red-shifted polymer nanoparticle for simultaneously activated photoacoustic imaging and photothermal therapy

“…Because the attenuation of acoustic waves in biological tissues is two to three orders of magnitude lower than that of light waves, PA imaging of biological tissues provides excellent contrast, superspace resolution, high penetration, and high sensitivity (6)(7)(8). PA imaging can avoid strong light scattering in biological tissue and provide a PA signal capable of penetrating 7 cm with a spatial resolution of up to 100 m (9), which surpasses the optical diffusion threshold and penetration depth of conventional optical imaging (10). Thus, it is a promising in vivo imaging technique with enormous potential in biomedical research and molecular diagnosis of diseases (11)(12)(13).…”

Progress on Multifunction Enzyme-Activated Organic Fluorescent Probes for Bioimaging

“…The endogenous enzymes, correlated with the severity of the diseases and the progression of the pathological conditions, are used for releasing probes from combined water-soluble state to hydrophobic AIEgens or from quenched state to fluorescent state, activating the probes and yielding a bright fluorescence. A series of research on enzyme-activated AIEgens for PA/fluorescence dual-modal imaging have been undertaken by the Wu group ( Wu et al, 2019 ; Ouyang et al, 2020 ; Zeng et al, 2020 ; Huang et al, 2021 ). The NTR-activated probe BH-NO 2 @BSA is ( Zeng et al, 2020 ) composed of the molecular probe (BH-NO 2 ) and the carrier protein bovine serum (BSA).…”

“…With dual-modal imaging NTR-activated probe, orthotopic liver tumors could preoperatively be precisely located by PA imaging, while tumor margins could accurately be defined by real-time intraoperative fluorescence imaging in the mice models ( Figure 2C ). Another NTR-activated probe Q-NO 2 ( Figure 1F ) could detect and image sequential metastases from the orthotopic breast tumors to lymph nodes and then to the lung in two breast cancer mouse models, indicating the monitoring and tracking application on the cancer metastases and treatment efficacy during the chemotherapeutic course ( Ouyang et al, 2020 ).…”

Near‐InfraredFluorescent Nanoprobe for Detecting Hydrogen Peroxide in Inflammation and Ischemic Kidney Injury

“…[ 11‐20 ] Compared to other methods, fluorescence technique shows higher sensitivity, simple operation process and non‐destructive imaging capability. [ 21‐24 ] To date, various fluorescent probes especially those with long‐wavelength emission have been synthesized for H 2 O 2 detection, as summarized in Table S1. However, most of the reported probes display short Stokes shift, and are hydrophobic and tend to aggregate in aqueous biological system, their fluorescence may be quenched due to the π‐π stacking and thus be deleterious for fluorescence response.…”