Development of biotin-tagged near-infrared fluorescence probes for tumor-specific imaging.

Abstract

Near-infrared (NIR) probes are applicable for tumor imaging due to deep tissue penetration and low background signal. And cyanine dyes with long emission wavelength are excellent fluorophores to develop NIR probes. However, the aggregation of cyanine dyes in aqueous solution reduces the utilization of light. To solve this problem, polyethylene glycol (PEG) was introduced into the probes to reduce their aggregation. In our work, two new NIR probes G1 and G2 were designed and prepared by conjugating the cyanine dye G0 with Biotin-PEG5-Azide. The conjugated biotin could enhance the target specificity of probes. And the photophysical and photochemical parameters demonstrated that G1 and G2 had a reduced aggregation tendency. In vitro fluorescence imaging proved that these two probes could be specifically taken up by HeLa cells, and in vivo imaging demonstrated that these two probes could specifically target tumors with large tumor-to-muscle (T/M) ratios. All these results indicated that G1 and G2 are promising NIR fluorescent contrast agents for tumor-specific imaging.

• Authors: Hang Li, Xiuting Wang, Yinxing Miao, Qingzhu Liu, Ke Li, Jianguo Lin, Minhao Xie, Ling Qiu
• Journal: Journal of photochemistry and photobiology. B, Biology (J Photochem Photobiol B) Vol. 217 Pg. 112172 (Apr 2021) ISSN: 1873-2682 [Electronic] Switzerland
• PMID: 33713894 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Fluorescent Dyes
• Biotin

Topics

• Animals
• Biotin (chemistry)
• Cell Line, Tumor
• Cell Survival (drug effects)
• Flow Cytometry
• Fluorescent Dyes (chemistry, metabolism, pharmacology)
• Humans
• Infrared Rays
• Mice
• Mice, Nude
• Neoplasms (diagnostic imaging, pathology)
• Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared (methods)
• Tissue Distribution
• Transplantation, Heterologous