Self-assembled peptide based and dual fluorescent- and isotopic-labelled molecular probes for in vivo diagnosis and treatment

1173 Introduction: Amino acids or peptides, as the typically basic biological building blocks, are ideal for generating biofunctional materials. With the advantages of easy synthesis and large space for molecular design, self-assembling peptides are expanding their applications in advanced materials with well-controlled biological activities. We fabricated a fluorescence/ photoacoustic/SPECT three-modal theranostical probe by using polytyrosine and ICG. The probe showed good biocompatibility and 71-fold of fluorescence signal and 51-fold of photoacoustic signal compared with free ICG at 24 h post i.v. injection. This multi-functional probe also showed excellent in vivo tumor inhibition by heat generation under light. We also focus the biosurface-induced supramolecular assemblies for diagnosis and therapy of major diseases. Here we present a dual fluorescent-nuclear probe (Rho-FF-Van) for imaging bacterial infection. Rho-FF-Van showed 13.3-fold higher signal in the MRSA-infected lungs than non-assembling probe in a murine model. As highly sensitive and selective probes for detecting tumor and bacteria infections, these novel multi-modal probes promise new way for diagnosis and treatment of diseases.