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  3. Rapid sorting and auxiliary evaluation of malignant breast tumors by accurate imaging analysis of metastasis-related biomarker

Rapid sorting and auxiliary evaluation of malignant breast tumors by accurate imaging analysis of metastasis-related biomarker

  • Sci Adv. 2025 Apr 4;11(14):eadr5541. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adr5541.
Shan Zuo 1,  Yanhua Li 1,  Yushi Chen 2,  Gangwei Jiang 1,  Zhixuan Zhou 1,  Tian-Bing Ren 1,  Lanlan Chen 2,  Sulai Liu 3,  Shulin Huang 4,  Xiao-Bing Zhang 1,  Lin Yuan 1
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Chemo and Biosensing, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, China.
  • 2 MOE Key Laboratory for Analytical Science of Food Safety and Biology, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Analysis and Detection Technology for Food Safety, College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350108, China.
  • 3 Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery/Central Laboratory, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital (The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Normal University), Changsha, 410005, China.
  • 4 Department of Breast and Thyroid Surgery, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital (The First Affiliated Hospital of Hunan Normal University), Changsha, 410005, China.
PMID: 40173246 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adr5541
Abstract

Accurate differentiation of benign and malignant breast tumors is paramount for establishing schemes of breast Cancer treatment and prognosis. Here we report a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence probe (YF-1) with the overexpressed Cathepsin C (CTSC) in metastatic breast tumors as the detecting substrate. This probe allows accurate identification of malignant tumor tissue specimens among tumor tissue specimens with unknown properties in a blind study. Importantly, a series of visible to NIR CTSC-activated fluorescence probes based on the same strategy realize effective identification of malignant tumor tissues, suggesting that CTSC could be the specific identification substrate of malignant breast tumors. Furthermore, a hydrophilic PEG moiety is coupled into YF-1, producing another CTSC-activated NIR probe (YF-2). YF-2 has excellent tumor-targeting capability, enabling the visualization of lung-metastatic breast tumors. The excellent detection accuracy and construction versatility of CTSC probes pave the way for preoperative diagnosis of malignant breast tumors.

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