Novel Fluorescent Nanoparticles Developed with Exciting Photothermal Performance for in vivo Imaging----Chinese Academy of Sciences

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Novel Fluorescent Nanoparticles Developed with Exciting Photothermal Performance for in vivo Imaging

Jul 13, 2020

Fluorescence imaging has been acting as a mainstream observation technique in the clinic diagnosis, but the fluorescence imaging approaches suffer from the scattering and absorption of the light by tissues, especially under the situation of visible‐light‐emitting fluorescence probes are used.

To overcome the problem, a research team led by Prof. Dr. PENG Bo from the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics (XIOPM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) developed novel near‐infrared (NIR) region fluorescent PEG₄₀₀‐K₅HoLi₂F₁₀ (KHLF) nanoparticles with exciting photothermal performance by a simple hydrothermal method. The results were published in Journal of Biomedical Materials Research.

Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images of unmodified K₅HoLi₂F₁₀ (KHLF) nanoparticles (NPs). (Image by XIOPM)

Compared with conventional NaYF₄ NPs, the KHLF as a novel doping matrix exhibits superior optical properties, The NPs exhibit high near‐infrared (NIR) region fluorescence emission efficiency and superior photostability.

Furthermore, the nanoparticles were verfied for in vitro bioimaging with living mice. The fluorescence image shows low biotoxicity, rapid metabolism and normal biodistribution, indicating the KHLF NPs have a great potential for noninvasive imaging and diagnosis of tumor in vivo.

The KHLF‐based nanoplatform also combines the fluorescence imaging and photothermal imaging, which demonstrates the advantages of collaborative diagnosis than the single diagnostic model in vivo.