Polysaccharide-based near-infrared fluorescence nanoprobes for cancer diagnosis.

Near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging is most exciting and rapidly progressing area for sensitive cancer detection at the early stage and management of tumors. Recent advances of nanobiotechnology allow researchers to combine new nanoprobes with NIRF imaging techniques. Among a variety of nanomaterials, polysaccharide-based nanoparticles have been extensively investigated for biomedical applications due to their biocompatibility and biodegradability, cost effectiveness, and the ease of modifications, and so on. The main focus of this article is to describe the targeting approaches (i.e., passive targeting via enhanced permeability and retention effects and microenvironments, and active targeting) of polysaccharide-based NIRF nanoprobes, and review their primary applications for cancer in vivo molecular imaging.