Activatable optical imaging with a silica-rhodamine based near infrared (SiR700) fluorophore: a comparison with cyanine based dyes.

Optical imaging is emerging as an important tool to visualize tumors. However, there are many potential choices among the available fluorophores. Optical imaging probes that emit in the visible range can image superficial tumors with high quantum yields; however, if deeper imaging is needed then near-infrared (NIR) fluorophores are necessary. Most commercially available NIR fluorophores are cyanine based and are prone to nonspecific binding and relatively limited photostability. Silica-containing rhodamine (SiR) fluorophores represent a new class of NIR fluorophores, which permit photoactivation via H-dimer formation as well as demonstrate improved photostability. This permits higher tumor-to-background ratios (TBRs) to be achieved over longer periods of time. Here, we compared an avidin conjugated with SiR700 (Av-SiR700) to similar compounds based on cyanine dyes (Av-Cy5.5 and Av-Alexa Fluor 680) in a mouse tumor model of ovarian cancer metastasis. We found that the Av-SiR700 probe demonstrated superior quenching, enabling activation after binding-internalization to the target cell. As a result, Av-SiR700 had higher TBRs compared to Av-Cy5.5 and better biostability compared to Av-Alexa Fluor 680.