Cancer cell membrane-coated rare earth doped nanoparticles for tumor surgery navigation in NIR-II imaging window

With the attractive characteristics of low toxicity, narrow emission spectra, long fluorescence lifetime, and no photobleaching, rare-earth doped nanoparticles (RENPs) have become promising imaging nanoplatforms in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm). Many studies have been devoted to different surface modification strategies of RENPs to achieve good NIR-II tumor imaging property. However, the tumor imaging efficiency of these approaches remains disappointing. Herein, two methods were pursued to modify RENPs with either polyethylene glycol (PEG) or cancer-cell-membrane to generate PEGylated-RENPs and cancer-cell-membrane camouflaged RENPs (CC-RENPs), respectively. This study demonstrated that cancer-cell-membrane coating of RENPs greatly improved tumor imaging performance in NIR-II window than PEG coating. Besides, CC-RENPs uptakes in liver and spleen significantly decreased. Importantly, CC-RENPs was found to be capable to aid us to pursue precise resection of the tumor. In conclusion, CC-RENPs are capable of targeting tumors and show high tumor NIR-II imaging quality. They are highly promising nanomaterials for future medical applications.