Activatable Carbocyanine Dimers for Photoacoustic and Fluorescent Detection of Protease Activity.

ABSTRACT: Activatable contrast agents are of ongoing research interest because they offer low background and high specificity to the imaging target. Engineered sensitivity to protease activity is particularly desirable because proteases are critical biomarkers in cancer, infectious disease, inflammatory disorders, and so forth. Herein, we developed and characterized a set of peptide-linked cyanine conjugates for dual-modal detection of protease activity via photoacoustic (PA) and fluorescence imaging. The peptide-dye conjugates were designed to undergo contact quenching via intramolecular dimerization and contained n dyes (n = 2, 3, or 4) with n - 1 cleavable peptide substrates. The absorption peaks of the conjugates were blue-shifted 50 nm relative to the free dye and had quenc

SUBMITTER: Moore C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8375416 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature