title: Recent conjugation strategies of small organic fluorophores and ligands for cancer-specific bioimaging.
abstract: Conjugation between various small fluorophores and specific ligands has become one of the main strategies for bioimaging in disease diagnosis, medicinal chemistry, immunology, and fluorescence-guided surgery, etc. Herein, we present our review of recent studies relating to molecular fluorescent imaging techniques for various cancers in cell-based and animal-based models. Various organic fluorophores, especially near-infrared (NIR) probes, have been employed with specific ligands. Types of ligands used were small molecules, peptides, antibodies, and aptamers; each has specific affinities for cellular receptor proteins, cancer-specific antigens, enzymes, and nucleic acids. This review can aid in the selection of cancer-specific ligands and fluorophores, and may inspire the further development of new conjugation strategies in various cellular and animal models.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicinal Chemistry, Jungwon University, Munmu-ro 85, Goesan-gun, Chungbuk 367-805, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Yonghwang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ha
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedicinal Chemistry, Jungwon University, Munmu-ro 85, Goesan-gun, Chungbuk 367-805, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: hkchoi45@jwu.ac.kr.
authors.forename: Hyun-Kyung
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Choi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005456:Fluorescent Dyes; D006801:Humans; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D005456:Fluorescent Dyes
keywords: Cancer-specific biomarkers; Cancer-specific ligands; Cancer-specific receptors; Fluorescent diagnosis; Near-infrared