Galactose Substituted Phthalocyanines for Tumor Imaging as Near-infrared Fluorescence Probe

Near-infrared fluorescence imaging can be used in deep tissues and organs for detecting and imaging in biological tissue. It provides effective methods of tumor detecting and tracking the diseases treatments. In order to develop tumor special probe and improve diagnose effect, phthalocyanine conjugation with galactose was synthesized as near-infrared fluorescent probes. The probe had good water-solubility and high emission ability in near-infrared region. In vivo fluorescence imaging effect and organ distribution of probe were conducted with nude mice bearing liver cancer as model. The results show that galactose modified phthalocyanine has obvious near-infrared imaging effect in vivo and a certain tumor targeting ability. So the near-infrared optical probe can be potentially applied in the diagnosis of cancer in future.