Necrosis binding of Ac-Lys0(IRDye800CW)-Tyr3-octreotate: a consequence from cyanine-labeling of small molecules

Background There is a growing body of nuclear contrast agents that are repurposed for fluorescence-guided surgery. New contrast agents are obtained by substituting the radioactive tag with, or adding a fluorescent cyanine to the molecular structure of antibodies or peptides. This enables intra-operative fluorescent detection of cancerous tissue, leading to more complete tumor resection. However, these fluorescent cyanines can have a remarkable...