Activatable Multispectral Photoacoustic Probes, Methods of Making Probes, and Methods of Use
. Multispectral Photoacoustic Imaging, Activatable Contrast Agent Tumor Protease Activity In Vivo .
Tumor proteases have been recognized as significant regulators in the tumor microenvironment, but the current strategies for in vivo protease imaging have tended to focus on the development of probe design rather than the investigation of novel imaging strategy by leveraging the imaging technique and probe. Herein, it is the first invention to investigate the ability of multispectral photoacoustic imaging (PAI) to estimate the distribution of protease cleavage sites inside living tumor tissue by using an activatable photoacoustic (PA) probe. This novel strategy is a potential to be translated into clinical applications in the future (e.g., non-invasive precise assessment of various types of cancer to increase prognosis, reduce medicine cost).