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Updated: Nov 2, 2025

A Flow Cytometry-Based Cell Surface Protein Binding Assay for Assessing Selectivity and Specificity of an Anticancer Aptamer
Published on: September 13, 2022
Activatable molecular agents for cancer theranostics
Jianjian Zhang1, Lulu Ning2, Jiaguo Huang3
1Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Natural Functional Molecule Chemistry of Ministry of Education, Key Lab of Modern Separation Science in Shaanxi Province, College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Northwest University Xi'an 710127 Shaanxi P. R. China zhangjj@nwu.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Theranostics that integrates diagnosis and treatment modalities has attracted great attention due to its abilities of personalized therapy and real-time monitoring of therapeutic outcome. Such a theranostic paradigm requires agents to simultaneously possess the capabilities of targeting, imaging, and treatment. Activatable molecular agents (AMAs) are promising for cancer theranostics, as they show a higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), real-time detection of cancer-associated biomarkers, lower normal tissue toxicity, and a higher therapeutic effect. This perspective summarizes the recent advancements of AMAs, which include imaging-guided chemotherapy, imaging-guided photodynamic therapy, and imaging-guided photothermal therapy. The molecular design principles, theranostic mechanisms, and biomedical applications of AMAs are described, followed by a discussion of potential challenges of AMAs in cancer theranostics.
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