In vivo targeted imaging of early stage prostate cancer using a transferrin based near-infrared fluorescence probe

Transferrin (Tf) stabilized Au nanoclusters were successfully applied in the near-infrared targeted imaging of prostate cancer overexpressing Tf receptor in vivo. The prepared Tf-Au NCs owned the merits of low cytotoxicity, good biocompatibility, and natural metabolism, excellent optical properties in the NIR region and receptor specific cancer targeting ability. In our study, serial imaging in vivo has been performed sequently. The results showed that targeted fluorescence imaging with Tf-Au NCs possessed an amazing capability of detecting the early-stage small tumours, and giving as accurate and reproducible measures of tumour size in mice as external calliper measurements. To our knowledge, this was the first time to study the biomedical application of Tf-Au NCs in vivo via intravenous administration rather than cell experiments or orthotopic injection. These remarkable data could provide direct and factual evidence that Tf-Au NCs are very promising nanoprobes which could be harmlessly and efficiently used for the targeted diagnosis of human tumours in vivo, indicating that the further clinical translation of Tf-Au NCs could be expected.