Hypoxia-activated probe for NIR fluorescence and photoacoustic dual-mode tumor imaging

Construction of tumor microenvironment responsive probe with more than one imaging modality, in particular toward hypoxia of solid tumors, is an appealing yet significantly challenging task. In this work, we designed a hypoxia-activated probe TBTO (Triphenylamine-Benzothiadiazole-Triphenylamine derivative featuring four diethylamino N-Oxide groups) for in vivo imaging. TBTO could undergo bioreduction in a hypoxic microenvironment to yield compound TBT sharing both near-infrared (NIR) aggregation-induced emission and strong twisted intramolecular charge transfer features, which endows the probe with excellent performance in NIR fluorescence and photoacoustic dual-mode tumor imaging. This study offers useful insights into designing a new generation agent for clinical cancer diagnosis.