A nano-detection system based on a chemical probe for early diagnosis of atherosclerosis in situ.

With the existing medical diagnostic technology, the diagnosis of atherosclerosis (AS) is mainly focused on the later stage of AS development rather than plaque imaging in the period before plaque formation. It is impractical to apply the existing theoretical methods for the purpose of early detection of AS. Herein, this study uses a naphthalimide-based fluorescent probe for recognition of cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS). A platelet membrane (Mp) with foam cell targeting was wrapped around the probes to prepare two vesicle structures TBNG@Mp and GNTB@Mp. The animal experiment results show that the screened nano-detection system TBNG@Mp could accumulate in the thoracic aorta of early AS rats. Under the effect of intracellular ROS, fluorescence signals can be observed. In addition, acute biological toxicity was not observed in pathological sections. Therefore, the foam cell targeting system TBNG@Mp with acceptable biocompatibility can realize the detection of AS one to two decades in advance as well as has a good application prospect.