Multifunctional Near-Infrared Dye IR-817 Encapsulated in Albumin Nanoparticles for Enhanced Imaging and Photothermal Therapy in Melanoma

Jianv Wang,1,* Hongye Liao,1,* Jieming Ban,2 Sen Li,2 Xia Xiong,1 Qingqing He,1 Xinyu Shi,2 Hongping Shen,2 Sijin Yang,2 Changzhen Sun,2 Li Liu1 1Department of Dermatology, the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, 646000, People’s Republic of China; 2Drug Research Center of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, National Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinical Research Base, the Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, 646000, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Changzhen Sun, Drug Research Center of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, National Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinical Research Base, the Affiliated Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, 646000, People’s Republic of China, Tel/Fax +86-136-9949-2406, Email sunchangzhen@swmu.edu.cn Li Liu, Department of Dermatology, the Affiliated Hospital of Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, 646000, People’s Republic of China, Tel/Fax +86-193-3860-9127, Email liuli@swmu.edu.cnBackground: Near-infrared cyanine dyes have high sensitivity and spatial resolution imaging capabilities, but they also have unavoidable drawbacks such as photobleaching, low water solubility, fluorescence quenching, and toxic side effects. As an effective biologic drug carrier, albumin combines with cyanine dyes to form albumin@dye nanoparticles. These nanoparticles can alleviate the aforementioned issues and are widely used in tumor imaging and photothermal therapy.Methods: Herein, a newly synthesized near-infrared dye IR-817 was combined with bovine serum albumin (BSA) to create BSA@IR-817 nanoparticles. Through the detection of fluorescence emission and absorption, the optimal concentration and ratio of BSA and IR-817 were determined. Subsequently, dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements and scanning electron micros