The research group of Gao Mingyuan, Institute of chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences has made important progress in tumor microenvironment molecular imaging nanoprobes

The physical and chemical characteristics of tumor microenvironment, which are closely related to tumor growth, invasion and metastasis, have been widely concerned According to these characteristics (including hypoxia, low pH, reducibility, abnormal enzyme expression, etc.), traditional invasive research will not only bring harm to human body, but also get very limited information The rapid development of molecular imaging technology provides a new method for noninvasive monitoring of tumor microenvironment Through the design and modification of nanomaterials, smart nanoprobes can respond to some characteristics in tumor microenvironment, thus obtaining real-time, high-resolution, cell level and even molecular level images of tumor microenvironment Therefore, it is of great significance to design and develop an intelligent molecular image probe for tumor microenvironment With the support of NSFC, the Ministry of science and technology and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the research group of Gao Mingyuan, the Key Laboratory of Institute of chemistry, colloid, interface and chemical thermodynamics, has carried out in-depth research in the field of intelligent molecular image probes in recent years Researchers prepared nanoparticles with uniform size and excellent optical magnetic properties (chem Mater., 2015, 27, 1299; chem Commun., 2016, 52, 5872; chem Mater., 2015, 27, 7918), and studied the effects of different sizes and ligands on biocompatibility and distribution in vivo (chem Commun., 2014, 50, 2170; adv Mater., 2014, 26, 2694; Nanoscale , 2015 , 7 , 11075 ）。 At the same time, the researchers constructed a responsive molecular imaging probe (adv mater., 2017, 29, 1701095; ACS Nano, 2015, 9, 3199) to achieve targeted response to tumor microenvironment and highly sensitive tumor imaging On the basis of the above research, the researchers have successfully designed a target double proportion fluorescence probe The probe can gather at the tumor site by systematic delivery, and simultaneously detect the activity and pH value of MMP-9 enzyme in tumor microenvironment The probe can not only respond rapidly, but also provide quantitative information of two characteristics in tumor Using this probe, the researchers found that the high expression of MMP-9 in vivo has a strong correlation with the low pH value in the tumor microenvironment in time and space, which together revealed the development direction of tumor invasion This work provides a new probe design idea, which can provide a powerful tool for studying various malignant factors in tumor microenvironment in vivo It has been published in J am Chem SOC (DOI: 10.1021 / JACS 7b08900).