Design, synthesis, and imaging of an activatable photoacoustic probe.

ABSTRACT: Photoacoustic tomography is a rapidly growing imaging modality that can provide images of high spatial resolution and high contrast at depths up to 5 cm. We report here the design, synthesis, and evaluation of an activatable probe that shows great promise for enabling detection of the cleaved probe in the presence of high levels of nonactivated, uncleaved probe, a difficult task to attain in absorbance-based modality. Before the cleavage by its target, proteolytic enzyme MMP-2, the probe, an activatable cell-penetrating peptide, Ceeee[Ahx]PLGLAGrrrrrK, labeled with two chromophores, BHQ3 and Alexa750, shows photoacoustic signals of similar intensity at the two wavelengths corresponding to the absorption maxima of the chromophores, 675 and 750 nm. Subtraction of the images taken at these tw

SUBMITTER: Levi J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2922742 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature