Near-infrared quantum dots labelled with a tumor selective tetrabranched peptide for in vivo imaging

Background Near-infrared quantum dots (NIR QDs) are a new class of fluorescent labels with excellent bioimaging features, such as high fluorescence intensity, good fluorescence stability, sufficient electron density, and strong tissue-penetrating ability. For all such features, NIR QDs have great potential for early cancer diagnosis, in vivo tumor imaging and high resolution electron microscopy studies on cancer cells. Results In the present study we constructed NIR QDs functionalized with the NT4 cancer-selective tetrabranched peptides (NT4-QDs). We observed specific uptake of NT4-QDs in human cancer cells in in vitro experiments and a much higher selective accumulation and retention of targeted QDs at the tumor site, compared to not targeted QDs, in a colon cancer mouse model. Conclusions NIR QDs labelled with the tetrabranched NT4 peptide have very promising performance for selective addressing of tumor cells in vitro and in vivo, proving rising features of NT4-QDs as theranostics. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12951-018-0346-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.