Surface chemistry for high-contrast fluorescence kidney imaging

描述活体内荧光成像，使一个完整的活体内的生理过程可视化，已经成为基本了解疾病病理和发展不可或缺的临床前工具。最近，它还被转化为临床试验，以改善手术结果和降低医疗成本。然而，将体内荧光成像应用于临床前肾脏研究和外科手术仍然具有极大的挑战性，因为现有的近红外造影剂存在肾脏快速清除和背景组织高蓄积等不良体内行为。因此，活体肾脏成像仍然严重依赖于高成本的放射成像技术，如正电子发射断层扫描(PET)和单光子发射计算机断层扫描(SPECT)，这不仅限制了肾脏的基础研究，而且使外科医生在未来进行成像引导的肾脏手术具有挑战性。这项应用的目标是通过开发一种肾脏可透明近红外(NIR)发射纳米探针来解决这些关键挑战，该纳米探针具有高肾脏靶向特异性、可调的肾脏保留时间和在正常背景组织和网状内皮系统(RES)器官中的最小积聚，从而实现与所需检测时间窗口的高对比度的无创和有创肾脏成像。

DESCRIPTION In vivo fluorescence imaging, allowing the visualization of physiological processes in an intact living organism, has been an indispensable preclinical tool for fundamental understandings of disease pathology and development. More recently, it has also been translated into clinical trials to improve surgery outcomes and lower health-care costs. However, delivery of in vivo fluorescence imaging into preclinical kidney research and surgery remains highly challenging because of undesired in vivo behaviors such as rapid kidney clearance and high accumulation in background tissues of current NIR emitting contrast agents. As a result, in vivo kidney imaging remains heavily relied on high-cost radiological imaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), which not only limits fundamental kidney research but also makes it challenging for surgeons to conduct imaging-guided kidney surgery in the future. The objective of this application to address these critical challenges by developing a class of renal clearable near infrared (NIR) emitting nanoprobes with high kidney-targeting specificity, tunable kidney retention time and minimum accumulation in normal background tissues and reticuloendothelial system (RES) organs, so that both noninvasive and invasive kidney imaging can be achieved at high contrast with desired detection time window.