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. 2020 Jun 26;11:3257. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-16814-4

Fig. 1. Mechanism of action.

Fig. 1

A tumor microenvironment turns acidic when the tissue transforms from pre-malignant cells into invasive cancer. The ONM-100 nanoparticles extravasate due to the enhanced permeability of the tumor vasculature and are then retained due to the poor lymph drainage in the tumor tissue. This leads to ONM-100 accumulation in the acidic extracellular matrix causing the pH activated fluorescence to switch from the “off” (green) to the “on” (red) state. pHe: extracellular pH, pHt: threshold pH.