Recent advancements in tumour-targeted therapies and immunotherapy offer hope to patients with various malignancies. However, the uncontrolled growth and metastatic infiltration of malignant tumours remain a huge therapeutic challenge. Therefore, this study aimed to develop an integrated multifunctional diagnostic and treatment reagent IR-251 that can not only be used for tumour imaging but also to inhibit tumour growth and metastasis. Besides, our results showed that IR-251 targeted and damaged the mitochondria in cancer cells via organic anion-transporting polypeptides. Mechanistically, IR-251 induced ROS overproduction by inhibiting PPARγ and then inhibiting the β-catenin signalling pathway and downstream protein molecules related to the cell cycle and metastasis. Moreover, the excellent anti-tumour proliferation and metastasis ability of IR-251 were verified in vitro/in vivo. And histochemistry staining revealed that IR-251 inhibited tumour proliferation and metastasis, which showed no significant side effect. In conclusion, this novel, multifunctional, mitochondria-targeting near-infrared fluorophore probe IR-251 has great potential in achieving accurate tumour imaging and inhibiting tumour proliferation and metastasis, and the underlying mechanism of action of IR-251 is mainly via the PPARγ/ROS/β-catenin pathway.
