Near-infrared light emitting dyes have the potential for imaging vasculature, tumors, and other objects fairly deep within the body. Indocyanine green is already used for ophthalmic angiographies, liver and cardiac studies, and other applications, but the quality of the image it helps to create can be quite limited. Dyes based on carbon nanotubes, quantum dots, and other techniques already exist but they stay inside the body for way too long. They’re either toxic or can’t be used repeatedly since previous administrations continue to linger, confusing the imaging.
Researchers at Stanford University have now created a new set of dyes that outperform indocyanine green while being rapidly washed away by the body. They produce light within the second near-infrared window (NIR-II) which involves somewhat longer wavelengths that penetrate through tissue with less scatter. This results in sharper images from deeper within the body.
The dye is expelled through the urine within 24 hours, allowing new injections to happen whenever updates on a diseases’s progress need to be performed.
Study in Nature Materials: A small-molecule dye for NIR-II imaging…
Source: Stanford…