Developing a Bright NIR-II Fluorophore with Fast Renal Excretion and Its Application in Molecular Imaging of Immune Checkpoint PD-L1

Hao Wan, Huilong Ma, Shoujun Zhu, Fei Fei Wang, Ye Tian, Rui Ma, Qinglai Yang, Zhubin Hu, Tong Zhu, Weizhi Wang, Zhuoran Ma, Mingxi Zhang, Yeteng Zhong, Haitao Sun*, Yongye Liang, Hongjie Dai

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

95 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Fluorescence imaging in the second near-infrared (NIR-II) window holds impressive advantages of enhanced penetration depth and improved signal-to-noise ratio. Bright NIR-II fluorophores with renal excretion ability and low tissue accumulation are favorable for in vivo molecular imaging applications as they can render the target-mediated molecular imaging process easily distinguishable. Here, a probe (anti-PD-L1-BGP6) comprising a fluorophore (IR-BGP6) covalently bonded to the programmed cell death ligand-1 monoclonal antibody (PD-L1 mAb) for molecular imaging of immune checkpoint PD-L1 (a targeting site upregulated in various tumors for cancer imaging) in the NIR-II window is reported. Through molecular optimization, the bright NIR-II fluorophore IR-BGP6 with fast renal excretion (≈91% excretion in general through urine within the first 10 h postinjection) is developed. The conjugate anti-PD-L1-BGP6 succeeds in profiling PD-L1 expression and realizes efficient noninvasive molecular imaging in vivo, achieving a tumor to normal tissue (T/NT) signal ratio as high as ≈9.5. Compared with the NIR-II fluorophore with high nonspecific tissue accumulation, IR-BGP6 derived PD-L1 imaging significantly enhances the molecular imaging performance, serving as a strong tool for potentially studying underlying mechanism of immunotherapy. The work provides rationales to design renal-excreted NIR-II fluorophores and illustrate their advantages for in vivo molecular imaging.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1804956
JournalAdvanced Functional Materials
Volume28
Issue number50
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Dec 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • NIR-II fluorophore
  • PD-L1
  • molecular imaging
  • renal excretion

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