A light emitter is formed from nanoparticles including a compound semiconductor containing an Ag component, In component, and Se component. The peak wavelength of the emission intensity falls within the range of 700 to 1400 nm, and the half-value width ΔH for the peak wavelength is 100 nm or less. The light emitted is configured to emit strong light in the near-infrared region, and which is capable of detecting biological information, and is preferred for bioimaging.

A conjugate containing a fluorescent chromophore, which has any structure selected from C1 to C3. The conjugate containing the fluorescent chromophore provided by the described embodiments includes one fluorescent chromophore and two highly reactive groups R1 and R2 linked to the fluorescent chromophore by a covalent bond. The fluorescent chromophore in the conjugate initially has no or only weak fluorescence emission capability, and only after the two highly reactive groups react together with the corresponding molecule, the fluorescent chromophore has strong fluorescence emission. Therefore, the efficiency of conjugation of drug molecules to targeting molecules can be monitored in situ by the infrared fluorescence emission intensity and applied to the target-mediated drug delivery. ##STR00001##

The present invention relates to a nanocarrier for targeted therapy and/or diagnosis of a prostate cancer cell, the nanocarrier including a micelle including a phosphate surfactant represented by a specific Chemical Formula. The micelle including the phosphate surfactant constituting the nanocarrier for targeted therapy and/or diagnosis of the prostate cancer cell according to the present invention is cleaved by the overexpressed enzyme in the vicinity of the prostate cancer cell, so that therapeutic agent or diagnostic agent particles loaded on the micelle are capable of being selectively released to the prostate cancer cell. Therefore, it is possible to maximize the therapeutic and/or diagnostic effects while remarkably reducing the side effects of the drug in the living body compared to a conventional technology.

Disclosed are monoacylated Toll-like receptor 2 ligands which can be used in both the development of targeted agents for the imaging and treatment of pancreatic cancer as well as other cancers, and as an adjuvant for cancer immunotherapy. The monoacylated compounds disclosed herein have a higher binding affinity for TLR2 relative to a known potent diacylated agonists, but only −½ the bioactivity. Competition of the monoacylated compound with the diacylated compound for binding TLR2 was confirmed. Hence, the reported monoacylated compounds are inhibitors/antagonists of TLR2 activation.

Compositions for biomedical applications are disclosed, containing infrared-emitting particles, which contain rare earth-elements that emit in the short-wavelength infrared (SWIR) spectrum, where the particles are encapsulated with a biocompatible matrix to form down-converting encapsulated particles and can optionally further include a contrast agent or radiolabel and be used as multimodal imaging agents, where the multimodal-imaging scheme can be selected from optical/MRI, optical/X-ray imaging, optical/CT, optical/PET and combinations thereof. Multimodal imaging methods are also disclosed.

The disclosure features methods that include: administering to a subject a composition that includes particles, where each one of the particles features at least one targeting group that binds to a structural entity in the subject and at least one reacting group that reacts chemically with a reactive oxygen species in the subject, and where the particle emits luminescence when the reaction occurs; detecting the luminescence emission from the particles; and displaying an image of the subject showing locations of at least some reactive oxygen species in the subject based on the detected luminescence.

The present disclosure relates to gastrointestinal (GI) tract detection methods, devices and systems.

Polypeptides which comprises a plurality of luminescent metal binding sites and constructs comprising the polypeptides and bound luminescent metals are provided. When the constructs are exposed to suitable wavelengths of energy, the bound luminescent metals emit characteristic wavelengths of light. Thus, the constructs are used as luminescent tracking molecules e.g. as probes, markers, reporters, etc., and to deliver cargo to targeted cells or tissues.

Simple organic structures, organic/inorganic polymers, and other substrates have been made, all of which have at least one pyrrolidone moiety present, and found to exhibit low toxicity, low complement activation features and may be used to reduce protein interactions with drug conjugates while enhancing in vivo residency times for these conjugates when used as an injectable composition; thus these compounds can be used as substitutes for PEG in PEGylation. Surprisingly, these compounds also exhibit unique intrinsic fluorescence (IF) or non-traditional fluorescence (NTF) properties that currently cannot be explained by traditional photochemistry and fluorescence paradigms are described. These compounds have a variety of applications such as in cellular imaging, gene transfection, bio-diagnostics, biosensing, fluorescence directed surgical resections, drug delivery, forensics, environmental diagnostics, mineral/gemstone characterization, counterfeit goods detection, tracer studies related to liquid/water flow, oil field enhancements and diagnostics, prevention of photo-bleaching, and LED display enhancements and others.

A nanoparticle including at least one amphiphilic molecule and a polymer compound having a constitutional unit represented by Formula (1):

##STR00001## wherein, Ar.sup.1 and Ar.sup.2 represent a trivalent aromatic hydrocarbon ring group or a trivalent aromatic heterocyclic group; X and Y represent O, S, C(O), S(O), SO.sub.2, CR.sub.2, SiR.sub.2, NR, BR, PR, or P(O)(R); and R represents an alkyl group, aryl group, or the like; and n represents an integer of 1 or more.