Heptamethine cyanine-based small molecular cancer theranostic agents

Cancer theranostic agents with a combination of cancer therapy and real-time imaging/diagnosis, provide a promising prospect for individualized and precise cancer treatment. Here, a series of structure-inherent multifunctional fluorescent small molecules, namely heptamethine cyanine dyes, were developed simultaneously for tumor-targeting, near-infrared imaging and therapy. Obtainment of cancer theranostic agents based on structure-inherent multifunctional small molecules, is a simple and straightforward way, and small molecules have advantages of easy, low-cost and large-scale synthesis, including good repeatability and quality control. Therefore, our findings may provide an alternative approach to develop multifunctional cancer theranostic agents.