Aggregation-Induced Emission-Active Near-Infrared Fluorescent Organic Nanoparticles for Noninvasive Long-Term Monitoring of Tumor Growth

Effective long-term monitoring of tumor growth is significant for the evaluation of cancer therapy. Aggregation-induced emission-active near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent organic nanoparticles (TPFE-Rho dots) are designed and synthesized for long-term in vitro cell tracking and in vivo monitoring of tumor growth. TPFE-Rho dots display the advantages of NIR fluorescent emission, large Stokes shift (∼180 nm), good biocompatibility, and high photostability. In vitro cell tracing studies demonstrate that TPFE-Rho dots can track SK-Hep-1 cells over 11 generations. In vivo optical imaging results confirm that TPFE-Rho dots can monitor tumor growth for more than 19 days in a real-time manner. This work indicates that TPFE-Rho dots could act as NIR fluorescent nanoprobes for real-time long-term in situ in vivo monitoring of tumor growth.