Rational Design of a Multifunctional Molecular Dye with Single Dose and Laser for Efficiency NIR-II Fluorescence/Photoacoustic Imaging Guided Photothermal Therapy

Multifunctional probes integrating accurate multidiagnosis and efficient therapy hold great prospects in biomedical research. However, the sophisticated construction and difficulties in matching the ratios of doses and laser triggers of probes for each modal imaging and therapy still hinder the extensive practice of multifunctional probes in biomedicine. We herein rationally designed an organic dye SY1080 with intrinsic multifunction by introducing both 3,4-ethylenedioxy thiophene (EDOT) and the selenium containing acceptor unit into the backbone to balance the fluorescent brightness and emission wavelength. Under single dose and 808 nm laser irradiation conditions, SY1080 not only carried out NIR-II fluorescence/photoacoustic imaging of real-time and noninvasive tumor delineation with excellent contrast, but also effectively ablated tumors with laser irradiation to perform photothermal therapy under the guidance of dual-modal imaging. These exciting results highlight SY1080 as a multifunctional and universal phototheranostic platform for potential applications.