The development of a highly photostable and chemically stable zwitterionic near-infrared dye for imaging applications

A novel zwitterionic near-infrared (NIR) dye, ZWCC, has been designed and synthesized. It shows significantly enhanced photostability and chemical stability compared to the existing zwitterionic NIR dye. In addition, the feasibility of labeling ZWCC with biological ligands was investigated and used in live cell imaging applications.