Long-lasting hydrogel for targeting, imaging, and tumor metastasis without continuous auto-fluorescence

Metastatic lesion is often the main reason for the failure of cancer treatment. Tumor metastasis refers to tumor cells via lymphatic and blood vessels to reach other parts of the route from the primary site to continue the growth of metastases formation. Metastases generally small size, shape and diverse, randomly distributed in different organs, leading to cancer is difficult to cure. Therefore, the development of monitoring tumor metastasis A new method to study the metastatic behavior of tumor cells, is important for tumor therapy. Recently, School of Chemical Engineering and Technology Professor Yang Dayong Task Force were designed and synthesized A long afterglow hydrogel (PL-gel) , for imaging visualization of tumor metastasis. PL-gel by a tumor-specific targeting of a good and longlasting nanoprobes biocompatible alginate hydrogels configuration, it is possible to identify targeted, sustained labeled tumor cells and tumor-free autofluorescence transfer imaging. Long-lasting nanoprobes can in the absence of external excitation light for emitting near-infrared light to achieve deep tissue imaging without background interference. Tumor-specific ligands through surface modification, and may be implemented to identify specific tumor marker receptor mediated. PL-gel is biocompatible, it does not affect tumor metastasis and invasion, and high sensitivity. PL-gel can be sustained release at the tumor site of metastatic breast cancer mouse model labeled probe, overcome the interference of macrophages, tumor cell-specific marker, tumor metastasis achieve noninvasive, high selectivity, without background interference imaging tracer . The hydrogel may be longlasting custom designed for various types of cancer cells, thereby providing a common platform for the study of a variety of tumor metastasis.

findings recently published in Nano Letters, related achievements China has applied for patents for inventions. School of Chemical Engineering of Tianjin University lecturer Dr. Chun-Xia Liu Zhao Huaixin and graduate students as co-first authors. Study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation. References: Huaixin Zhao, # Chunxia Liu, # Zi Gu, Luxi Dong, Feng Li, Chi Yao, and Dayong Yang * Persistent luminescent nanoparticles containing hydrogel for targeted, sustained and autofluorescence-free tumor metastasis imaging [J] Nano Letters, 2019. Link:. https: // doi. org / 10.1021 / acs.nanolett.9b03755