Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10227695 | Biomaterials | 2014 | 11 Pages |
Abstract
Extensive efforts have been devoted to the development of near-infrared (NIR) dye-based imaging probes and/or photothermal agents for cancer theranostics in vivo. However, the intrinsic chemical instability and self-aggregation properties of NIR dyes in physiological condition limit their widely applications in the pre-clinic study in living animals. Squaraine dyes are among the most promising NIR fluorophores with high absorption coefficiencies, bright fluorescence and photostability. By introducing dicyanovinyl groups into conventional squaraine (SQ) skeleton. These acceptor-substituted SQ dyes not only show superior NIR fluorescence properties (longer wavelength, higher quantum yield) but also exhibit more chemical robustness. In this work, we demonstrated highly stable and biocompatible supramolecular adducts of SQ and the natural carrier protein, i.e., bovine serum albumin (BSA) (SQâBSA) for tumor targeted imaging and photothermal therapy in vivo. SQ was selectively bound to BSA hydrophobic domain via hydrophobic and hydrogen bonding interactions with up to 80-fold enhanced fluorescence intensity. By covalently conjugating target ligands to BSA, the SQâBSA was capable of targeting tumor sites and allowed for monitoring the time-dependent biodistribution of SQâBSA, which consequently determined the protocol of photothermal therapy in vivo. We envision that this supramolecular strategy for selectively binding functional imaging agents and/or drugs into human serum albumin might potentially utilize in the preclinical and even clinic studies in the future.
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Bioengineering
Authors
Fu-Ping Gao, Yao-Xin Lin, Li-Li Li, Ya Liu, Ulrich Mayerhöffer, Peter Spenst, Ji-Guo Su, Jing-Yuan Li, Frank Würthner, Hao Wang,