Study on Nano-probe System for Image-guided Digestive Cancer Surgery

Abstract

Endoscopy for cancer screening and surgery is widely used, and many endoscopic manners have been developed. However, it is still difficult to distinguish between small polyps and normal lesions using conventional endoscopy. To overcome this limitation, we developed fluorescence nano-probes that can be rapidly absorbed into abnormal polyps and tumors via local spraying. The fluorescence nano-probes absorbed into tumor can be discriminated from normal lesions by endoscopy. We designed two types of nano-probe and analyzed each characteristics. First type is conjugate type which is chemically conjugated raloxifene with FCR675 fluorescence dye (Ralo-FCR675). Second type, based on Pluronic nanoparticles (NPs) loading curcumin, is nanoparticles type. Two types of nano-probes separately sprayed on the colon cancer tissues of colon tumor bearing mice, showed that can be rapidly absorbed into tumor tissues in 60 sec and accurately distinguished between tumor lesions and normal lesions. Moreover, small polyps and tumors which are scarcely visible to the naked eye were detected by nano-probes using molecular imaging system. This rapid and accurate fluorescence nano-probes could serve as image-guided surgery probes for detecting tumors including small polyps with endoscopy screening and surgery.