Screening of HER2 Overexpressed Breast Cancer Subtype In Vivo by the Validation of High-Performance, Long-Term, and Noninvasive Fluorescence Tracer

The high-performance and noninvasive screening of heterogeneous tumor subtypes in vivo is particularly desirable for the diagnosis and symptomatic treatment of cancer. Therefore, we report a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence tracer “smartly identified HER2” (SI-HER2) for rapid, accurate, and highly specific screening of HER2 overexpressed breast cancer. An antibody against HER2 protein receptor, EP1045Y, was conjugated with NIR emitting CdSeTe/CdS/ZnS QDs via polyhistidine-driven self-assembly approach. The further adsorption of black hole quencher 3 on antibody enabled a “turn on” fluorescence response of the fluorescence tracer to HER2 protein receptor. Aside from the capability of differentiating the HER2 overexpressed MCF-7 cells from its counterparts, the fluorescence tracer can also accurately and rapidly identify the HER2 overexpressed breast tumor subtype in two tumors-bearing mouse model, providing a platform for the investigation of advanced pathways to distinguish the different breast cancer subtypes