A novel indocyanine green nanoparticle probe for non invasive fluorescence imaging in vivo

Fluorescence imaging (FLI) allows the in vivo monitoring of biological events associated with disease and represents a new promising tool for drug discovery. In particular, it speeds up the development and assessment of new therapies in oncology, helps in diagnosis, and improves surgery by fluorescence-guided tumor resection. This technique is highly sensitive, non-ionizing, easy to use and relatively inexpensive. Nevertheless, the main limitation of FLI lies in the optical properties of biological tissues. Mainly because of haemoglobin and water absorption, only near-infrared (NIR) light is adapted to image tissues in depth. Using a contrasting agent absorbing and emitting in the NIR region is therefore necessary to improve the background signal ratio, and thus the image contrast. Among many commercially available NIR optical contrast agents, only indocyanine green (ICG), has been approved by the United State Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for various medical applications. However, its instability (photo-degradation, thermal-degradation and low aqueous solubility) limits its applications as a fluorescent probe for imaging purposes. In order to improve the effectiveness of ICG, we engineered ICG-doped lipid nanoparticles (LNP). In this communication, we will report the design of these novel fluorescent nanoparticle probes. These low cost nanocarriers have numerous advantages, including their high chemical stability and biocompatibility. The characterization of the optical properties of the nanoparticles entrapping ICG will also be discussed. Finally, the biodistribution in mice of ICG when delivered through nanoparticles in comparison to free ICG in solution is presented. It demonstrates the efficient accumulation of ICG-doped nanoparticles in the tumor site.