Frozen Naphthalocyanine Micelles for Intestinal Imaging

Here we report the development of a family of nanoparticles that can withstand the harsh conditions of the stomach and intestine, avoid systemic absorption, and provide good optical contrast for photoacoustic imaging. The hydrophobicity of naphthalocyanine dyes was exploited to generate frozen micelles (nanonaps), with tunable near-infrared absorption. Nanonaps, following oral administration in mice, passed safely through the gastrointestinal tract. Non-invasive, non-ionizing photoacoustic techniques were used to visualize nanonap intestinal distribution with low background and remarkable resolution, and enabled real-time intestinal functional imaging with ultrasound co-registration.