Pre-clinical study of IR808 dye for cervical cancer in vitro and in vivo imaging.

There is an urgent need for improved methods for early screening and rapid diagnosis of cervical cancer since current conventional screening methods are plagued by operator subjectivity and unnecessary biopsies. IR808 is a tumour-targeting near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent dye that permits NIR imaging without the requirement of chemical conjugation. Our study investigates an IR808-based strategy for real-time monitoring of the cervix in vivo and rapid assessment of cervical specimens in vitro. We investigated the uptake of IR808 in vitro using normal cervical epithelial cells and three cervical cancer cell lines. The biodistribution of IR808 was examined in vivo via intravenous injection into tumour-bearing mice. Additionally, in vitro tissues were stained with IR808 to simulate the identification of cervical tumors in the clinical setting. Biocompatibility of the dye in both cellular and animal models was also examined. IR808 exhibited significant tumour-to-background ratios in fluorescence molecular imaging of in vivo tumors in nude mice. The application of NIR fluorescent dye IR808 in specific imaging screening, safe and non-invasive real-time monitoring, and rapid identification of cervical tumors from tissue specimens is expected to improve current screening methods for cervical cancer.