{"doi":"10.1142/s1793545824410013","title":"Ultrabright quantum dots assisted <i>in vivo</i> NIR-II fluorescence microscopic imaging for brain metastases in triple-negative breast cancer","abstract":"<jats:p> Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive and often fatal disease, especially since the brain metastasis of TNBC has been a particularly severe manifestation. However, brain metastasis in TNBC at early stages often lacks noticeable symptoms, making it challenging to detect. Near-infrared II (NIR-II) fluorescence microscopic imaging obtains long wavelength, which enables reduced scattering, high spatial resolution and minimal autofluorescence, it is also a favorable imaging method for tumor diagnosis. PbS@CdS quantum dots (QDs) are one of the popular NIR-II fluorescence nanoprobes for well brightness. In this study, NIR-II emissive PbS@CdS QDs were utilized and further encapsulated with thiol-terminated poly(ethylene oxide) (SH-PEG, MW = 5000) to form PbS@CdS@PEG QDs nanoparticles (NPs). The obtained PbS@CdS@PEG QDs NPs were then characterized and further studied in detail. The PbS@CdS@PEG QDs NPs had large absorption spectra, exhibited strong NIR-II fluorescence emission at approximately 1300[Formula: see text]nm, and possessed good NIR-II fluorescence properties. Then, the mice model of early-stage brain metastases of TNBC was established, and the PbS@CdS@PEG QDs NPs were injected into the tumor-bearing mice for NIR-II fluorescence microscopic bioimaging. The brain vessels and tumors of the living mice were detected with high spatial resolution under the NIR-II fluorescence microscopic imaging system with irradiation of 808[Formula: see text]nm laser. The tumor tissues were further restricted and prepared as thin slices. The NIR-II fluorescence signals were collected from the tumor slices with high spatial resolution and signal-to-background ratio (SBR). Thus, the PbS@CdS@PEG QDs NPs-assisted NIR-II fluorescence microscopic system can effectively achieve targeting brain metastases of TNBC imaging, offering a novel and promising approach for TNBC-specific diagnosis. </jats:p>","journal":"Journal of Innovative Optical Health Sciences","year":2025,"id":637133,"datarank":0.32958368660043297,"base_score":2.1972245773362196,"endowment":2.1972245773362196,"self_citation_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.32958368660043297,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":8,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":277386,"name":"Chi Zhang","orcid":"0000-0001-9519-7456","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":214385,"name":"Lijun Zhu","orcid":"0000-0001-9080-2274","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1654137,"name":"Zhong Du","orcid":"0009-0006-6802-5687","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":687716,"name":"Rong Ma","orcid":"0000-0002-5896-9178","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1047412,"name":"Le Guo","orcid":"0000-0002-9882-8230","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1654141,"name":"Nuernisha Alifu","orcid":"0000-0003-1236-519X","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1654143,"name":"Xueliang Zhang","orcid":"0000-0001-8973-6900","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1654135,"name":"Yuxiang Gao","orcid":"0009-0003-6438-9721","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Ultrabright quantum dots assisted <i>in vivo</i> NIR-II fluorescence microscopic imaging for brain metastases in triple-negative breast cancer","abstract":"<jats:p> Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive and often fatal disease, especially since the brain metastasis of TNBC has been a particularly severe manifestation. However, brain metastasis in TNBC at early stages often lacks noticeable symptoms, making it challenging to detect. Near-infrared II (NIR-II) fluorescence microscopic imaging obtains long wavelength, which enables reduced scattering, high spatial resolution and minimal autofluorescence, it is also a favorable imaging method for tumor diagnosis. PbS@CdS quantum dots (QDs) are one of the popular NIR-II fluorescence nanoprobes for well brightness. In this study, NIR-II emissive PbS@CdS QDs were utilized and further encapsulated with thiol-terminated poly(ethylene oxide) (SH-PEG, MW = 5000) to form PbS@CdS@PEG QDs nanoparticles (NPs). The obtained PbS@CdS@PEG QDs NPs were then characterized and further studied in detail. The PbS@CdS@PEG QDs NPs had large absorption spectra, exhibited strong NIR-II fluorescence emission at approximately 1300[Formula: see text]nm, and possessed good NIR-II fluorescence properties. Then, the mice model of early-stage brain metastases of TNBC was established, and the PbS@CdS@PEG QDs NPs were injected into the tumor-bearing mice for NIR-II fluorescence microscopic bioimaging. The brain vessels and tumors of the living mice were detected with high spatial resolution under the NIR-II fluorescence microscopic imaging system with irradiation of 808[Formula: see text]nm laser. The tumor tissues were further restricted and prepared as thin slices. The NIR-II fluorescence signals were collected from the tumor slices with high spatial resolution and signal-to-background ratio (SBR). Thus, the PbS@CdS@PEG QDs NPs-assisted NIR-II fluorescence microscopic system can effectively achieve targeting brain metastases of TNBC imaging, offering a novel and promising approach for TNBC-specific diagnosis. </jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"openalex_id":null,"authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","grant_id":"62035011","title":null},{"funder_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","grant_id":"82202220","title":null},{"funder_name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","grant_id":"82060326","title":null},{"funder_name":"State Key Laboratory of Pathogenesis, Prevention and treatment of High Incident Diseases in central Asia","grant_id":"SKL-HIDCA-2022-3","title":null},{"funder_name":"State Key Laboratory of Pathogenesis, Prevention and treatment of High Incident Diseases in central Asia","grant_id":"SKL-HIDCA-2022-GJ1","title":null},{"funder_name":"the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Regional Collaborative Innovation Special Science and Technology Assistance Program","grant_id":"2022E02130","title":null},{"funder_name":"Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Natural Science Foundation Key Project","grant_id":"2022D01D40","title":null},{"funder_name":"Outstanding Youth Project","grant_id":"2023D01E06","title":null}],"total_grants":8,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1142/s1793545824410013","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/S1793545824410013","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/52024b7d730a42639bc1b7834840f53f","host_type":"repository"}],"fields_of_study":[],"mesh_terms":[],"keywords":[],"sdg_mappings":[],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-08-06T18:22:32.089995Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}