Non-invasive assessment of aggressive tumors with high spatial resolution and specificity has been challenging. This study presents an application of multispectral photoacoustic tomography (MSPT) in tumor imaging, using a specially designed hypoxia-responding agent, NOx-JS013. The developed hypoxia probe, NOx-JS013, is reduced to JS013 under hypoxic conditions common in aggressive tumors, with a shifted absorption peak. Additionally, NOx-JS013 specifically binds with NCEH1, a characteristic enzyme highly expressed in aggressive tumor cells. The results from In-vivo experiments on aggressive and non-aggressive tumors demonstrate the feasibility of the MSPT hypoxia imaging using NOx-JS013 hypoxia indicator enhanced with aggressive cancer cell targeting ability.
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