Fluorescent emulsion

Abstract

The invention relates to a fluorescent emulsion, to its uses and to labelling reagents comprising it. The fluorescent emulsion of the invention is of the oil-in-water type, comprising at least one aqueous continuous phase in which droplets of at least one oil phase are dispersed, said oil phase droplets being stabilized by a surfactant layer, characterized in that it comprises at least one pair of labels, differing from one another, formed from a donor fluorescent label that absorbs at a wavelength lambda1 and emits at a wavelength lambda2 different from lambda1, and an acceptor label that absorbs at the emission wavelength lambda2 of the donor fluorescent label; in that the donor fluorescent label and the acceptor label are kept close together by the encapsulation of one of them in the oil phase droplets and either by linking the other of them to the oil phase droplet / aqueous phase interface, or by the encapsulation of the other of them in the oil phase droplets; and in that it comprises molecules of at least one amphiphilic surfactant and at least one solubilizing lipid. The fluorescent emulsion of the invention is applicable in the field of optical fluorescence imaging, in particular optical fluorescence biomedical imaging.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to a fluorescent emulsion, its use and a marking reagent containing the emulsion. Background technique [0002] Optical imaging techniques based on exploiting the scatter component of the detected signal are continuously being developed, since this technique allows scatterers, more specifically thicker scatterers, to be detected. [0003] In the field of biomedical imaging, these techniques, for example by diffusion optical tomography, provide an alternative to conventional techniques for, for example, cancer tumors: radiography and X-ray tomography, positron emission tomography, and for Magnetic resonance imaging for detection and localization. These conventional techniques are used to monitor abnormally absorbing and / or scattering regions at wavelengths in the visible range of non-ionizing radiation, more precisely in the red or near-infrared wavelength range where biological tissue has minimum absorption. [0004] In recent y...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Therefore, it is difficult to have signals from different fluorescent molecules (hereinafter also referred to as donor fluorescent labels), which means that there may be no or hardly any multiplexing

[0019] Finally, currently, existing optical probes cannot measure when fluorescent molecules (fluorescent labels) are delivered into living organisms

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