Iatrogenic nerve injury is a major source of morbidity common to all surgical specialties. Prostate cancer, the second leading cause of cancer-related death among men in the U.S, is often treated surgically via prostatectomy. But visibility of the nerve plexus is extremely limited and nerve damage affects 60% of patients leading to post-surgical comorbidities.
We’ve developed a synthetic strategy to improve key properties of fluorophores with potential clinical translatability to generate an optimal 700 nm fluorophore to pair with a fluorescently labeled probe optimized for the 800 nm channel in FGS systems targeting PSMA via the EUK targeting sequence for use in two-color prostatectomy.
These new water-soluble, NIR, nerve-specific fluorophores show improved nerve specificity and in vivo brightness, require a lower dose to achieve contrast of superficial and buried nerve tissue and negate formulation development, improving safety profiles and lowering the cost of clinical translation.
|