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A Natural Near-Infrared Fluorescent Probe For Cancer Cell Imaging, Benilde E. Adriano, Nycol M. Cotto, Neeraj Chauhan, Meena Jaggi, Subhash C. Chauhan, Murali M. Yallapu

Research Symposium

Background: Rio Grande Valley (RGV) suffers from a high prevalence of certain cancers and lack the resources for accurate early diagnosis. Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence-based imaging is a noteworthy and safer strategy for cancer detection compared to radiological imaging. There are several NIR dyes including indocyanine green (ICG) and its analogues that allow high-resolution and deep tissue imaging. However, these dyes possess some drawbacks, namely photo instability, toxicity, poor water solubility, and short half-lives. Chlorophyll (Chl) is a natural dietary and biocompatible NIR fluorescent substance which has the potential to serve as a cancer NIR imaging candidate. Hence, we aim to …