Tumor targeted imaging and therapy via GSH-responsive prodrug molecule

Abstract

Recently, therasnostic prodrug becomes a promising strategy for cancer research because it can reduce the side effects of conventional chemotherapy as well as it can monitor the activation of prodrug. In this study, theranostic prodrug molecule, Cy-SS-DOX was constructed by conjugating doxorubicin (DOX) and hep-tamethine cyanine dye (Cy7) using a cleavable disulfide linker which can make GSH sensing. In vitro ex-periments, the results showed the excellent anti-tumor ability as well as sensitive imaging ability for intra-cellular biothiols. When Disulfide cleavage reaction by GSH made change on structure of Cy7 in the pro-drug, a new fluorescence emission peak was emerged. This versatile theranostic prodrug molecule allow for effective cancer therapy with reduced side effects and tumor targeted imaging.