Dark-quenched fluorogenic nanoprobes for MMPs activity in living animals

Abstract

Most in vivo applications are hampered by insufficient resolution at the target site. Recently developed imaging probes, activatable probes, have shown promising results. However, many of these probes are so-far limited in usefulness in vivo mainly due to low target-to-background ratios or lack of stability in physiological condition after intravenous injection. Therefore, the development of more sophisticated and reliable activatable probes capable of boosting the intensity of fluorescent signals at the region of interest with specific target recognition properties is urgently needed.