Targeted thiazole orange derivative with folate: synthesis, fluorescence and in vivo fluorescence imaging

A Thiazole Orange conjugated with folate derivative was synthesized in two steps. Firstly, folate was coupled with 1-(3-aminopropyl)-4-methylquinolinium bromide to afford folate-methylquinolinium bromide, which then reacted with benzothiazolium to obtain the title folate-conjugated compound. The compound was evaluated by ¹H-NMR MS, TG/DTA and fluorescence spectroscopic methods. The title compound could selectively target folate receptor expressing tumors according to the in vivo fluorescence imaging preliminarily performed on nude mice with breast tumors.