Nano-sized Indocyanine Green J-aggregate as a One-component Theranostic Agent
Open accessAbstract
The development of biocompatiable efficient photothermal coupling agent (PCA) for image-guided photothermal therapy of cancer has gained increasing interests in recent years.Although various PCAs have been developed, the clinical translations of these materials have been largely hindered by the potential biosafety issues and challenges of scaling-up manufactures.In this research, we proposed nano-sized indocyanine green (ICG) J-aggregate (IJA) as a promising PCA which is fabricated by a very facile method using clinical-approved ICG as the only excipient.The as-prepared IJA remains stable in various solution and shows a ~115 nm red-shift in absorption peak compared to free ICG.Importantly, IJA can be disassociated into free ICG again after internalized into cells and exhibits high biosafety comparable to ICG.The IJA performs well for photothermal therapy both in vitro and in vivo.In addition, the IJA can also be used as a good photoacoustic contrast agent and internalization-responsive fluorescence probe.The facile preparation, high safety and excellent theranostic performance indicated that IJA might be a promising one-component agent for cancer theranostics.
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Indocyanine green in an aqueous solution mainly aggregates with H-type packaging, showing two absorption peaks at 780 and 715 nm.
“Indocyanine green in an aqueous solution mainly aggregates with H-type packaging, showing two absorption peaks at 780 and 715 nm.”
From The Pursuit of Shortwave Infrared-Emitting Nanoparticles with Bright Fluorescence through Molecular Design and Excited-State Engineering of Molecular Aggregates (2022) · cites this paper as [119]
The Results and Discussions section (Preparation and characterization of IJA; page not provided) reports peaks at 780 nm and approximately 715 nm. It says aqueous ICG exists mainly as monomers and H-type dimers, not mainly as H-type aggregates; the 780 nm peak is attributed to monomers. (LLM, conf=0.91)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe ICG aggregates reveal an average diameter of ∼91.7 nm and remain stable in various solutions.
“The aggregates reveal an average diameter of ∼91.7 nm and remain stable in various solutions.”
From The Pursuit of Shortwave Infrared-Emitting Nanoparticles with Bright Fluorescence through Molecular Design and Excited-State Engineering of Molecular Aggregates (2022) · cites this paper as [119]
Under extended water bath heating at 65 °C, the two absorption peaks of ICG gradually decrease, and a new absorption peak at 895 nm appears (115 nm red shift compared to free ICG), indicating transformation into J-aggregates.
“However, under extended water bath heating at 65 °C, these two peaks gradually decrease, and a new absorption peak at 895 nm appears (115 nm red shift in the absorption peak compared to free ICG), indicating transformation into J-aggregates.119”
From The Pursuit of Shortwave Infrared-Emitting Nanoparticles with Bright Fluorescence through Molecular Design and Excited-State Engineering of Molecular Aggregates (2022) · cites this paper as [119]
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- Authors
- Liu, R., Tang, J., Xu, Y., Zhou, Y., & Dai, Z.
- Affiliations
- Peking University (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Dai, Zhifei
- Venue
- Nanotheranostics
- Publisher
- Ivyspring International Publisher
- Published
- 2017
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 430-439
- ISSN
- 2206-7418 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5704008
- OpenAlex
- W2766104091
- Cited by
- 116
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 4
- FWCI
- 3.08
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by-nc
- Locations
- Nanotheranostics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China (81421004, No. 81421004, 81371580, 81230036)
- Peking University
- Foundation for Innovative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81421004)
- National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFA0201400, 2016YFA0201400)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Photodynamic Therapy Research Studies
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials
- Keywords
- indocyanine green, J-aggregates, photothermal therapy, theranostic agents, photoacoustic contrast agents, fluorescent probes, cancer theranostics, image-guided therapy, biosafety, bathochromic shift
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