Croconaine nanoparticles with enhanced tumor accumulation for multimodality cancer theranostics

A novel nanoparticle self-assembled by polyethylene glycol (PEG) modified croconaine dye (CR780) is presented for photoacoustic (PA)/near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging-guided photothermal therapy (PTT). The simple PEGylation made CR780 amphiphilic, and led to their self-assembly into well-defined and uniform nanostructures with size tunable by controlling the assembly conditions. The CR780-PEG5K not only displayed the strength of small molecules (including rapid distribution to different organs, fast renal clearance and minimal accumulation to normal tissues), but also demonstrated the advantages of nanomaterials (including high physiological stability, multimodal theranostic ability, high tumor accumulation and retention). These facilely synthesized molecular nanoprobes showed great clinical translation potential as a versatile theranostic agent.

Graphical abstractSelf-assemblies from polyethylene glycol modified croconaine dye (CR780-PEG5K) are proved to be highly effective for in vivo photoacoustic/near-infrared fluorescent imaging guided photothermal therapy. These facile prepared molecular nanoprobes display much improved tumor accumulation and retention, but are still renal clearable like small molecules, which are promising in cancer theranostic.Download high-res image (229KB)Download full-size image