Polymethine Thiopyrylium Fluorophores with Absorption beyond 1000 nm for Biological Imaging in the Second Near-Infrared Subwindow

Abstract

Small-molecule fluorescence imaging in the second near-infrared (NIR-II, 1000-1700 nm) window has gained increasing interest in clinical application. Till now, very few studies have been exploited in the small-molecule fluorophores with both excitation and emission in the NIR-II window. Inspired by indocyanine green structure, a series of polymethine dyes with both absorption and emission in NIR-II window have been developed for NIR-II imaging, providing the feasibility to directly compare optical imaging in NIR-IIa (1300-1400 nm) sub-window under 1064 nm excitation with that in NIR-II window under 808 nm excitation. The signal-background ratio (SBR) and tumor to normal tissue ratio (T/NT) achieved great improvement under 1064 nm excitation in the imaging of mouse blood pool and U87 glioma tumors. Our study not only introduces a broadband emission fluorophore for both NIR-II and NIR-IIa imaging, but also reveals the advantages of NIR-II excitation over NIR-I in in vivo imaging.