Aptamer-based NIR II imaging for breast cancer surgical resection

Abstract The accuracy of intraoperative tumor margin assessment is the main challenge in breast conserving surgery (BCS). NIR-II fluorescence-guided surgery enables surgeons to visualize the tumor margins dynamically in real time and facilitate the precision of tumor resection. We develop an aptamer...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lei Niu, Kang-Liang Lou, Zhi Zhu, Wei-Zhi Liu, Wen-Liang Gao, Gu-Yue Hu, Jun-Xue Gao, Guo-Jun Zhang, Wen-He Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Portfolio 2025-08-01
Series:npj Imaging
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s44303-025-00095-x
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Abstract The accuracy of intraoperative tumor margin assessment is the main challenge in breast conserving surgery (BCS). NIR-II fluorescence-guided surgery enables surgeons to visualize the tumor margins dynamically in real time and facilitate the precision of tumor resection. We develop an aptamer-conjugated NIR-II probe for intraoperative fluorescence imaging. Peglated indocyanine green (PEG-ICG) was conjugated with an aptamer SYL3C binding to EpCAM to synthesize the probe SYL3C-ICG. Human breast cancer cell lines with different expression levels of EpCAM were employed to assess its tumor-targeting capability. Tumor xenograft models were established to investigate the in vivo selectivity of SYL3C-ICG, and a segmental excision procedure was employed to evaluate the efficacy of the probe in navigating precise surgical resection under NIR-II imaging. In vitro and in vivo fluorescence imaging revealed that NIR-II provides superior imaging resolution and penetration depth compared to NIR-I, and SYL3C-ICG could selectively accumulate at the tumor site, which helps surgeons detect tiny residual malignant lesions invisible to the naked eye and reduce the postoperative recurrence rate.
ISSN:2948-197X