Inflammation-targeted gold nanorods for intravascular photoacoustic imaging detection of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP 2 ) in atherosclerotic plaques

Elevated expression of matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP2) is one of the clinical features of high-risk atherosclerotic plaques. Many methods such as fluorescence imaging methods have been used to detect MMP2 for evaluating plaque vulnerability. However, so far no imaging method has been able to resolve the expression of MMP2 with high fidelity and resolution beyond microscopic depths. In this study, gold nanorods conjugated with MMP2 antibody...