Multimodal bacteriochlorophyll theranostic agent

The complimentary ability of different noninvasive imaging technologies with therapeutic modalities can be used in tandem providing high-resolution and highly sensitive imaging of events at the molecular and cellular level providing a means for image-guided therapy. There is increasing interest in using porphyrin-based photosensitizers as theranostics to take advantages of their near-infrared fluorescent properties for imaging and their strong singlet oxygen generation abilities for photodynamic therapy. Here we report a targeted multimodal bacteriochlorophyll theranostic probe. This probe consists of a bacteriochlorophyll derivative, a pharmacokinetics modification peptide linker and folate for targeted delivery to folate receptor expressing cancer cells. We demonstrate its multimodal theranostic capability, its folate receptor targeting ability and its utility for both NIR fluorescence imaging and photodynamic therapy purposes both in vitro and in vivo.