Review for 10.1186/s12876-021-01840-3 (2021)

Reviewer’s report
Title: 
Targeted imaging of esophageal adenocarcinoma with a near-infrared
fluorescent peptide
Version: 
1 
Date: 
11 Apr 2021
Reviewer's report:
The authors evaluated the tumor-targeting efficacy of Cy5.5-conjugated SNF
probe for imaging of esophageal adenocarcinoma in vitro and in vivo. They
successfully found the high affinity and specificity of SNF-Cy5.5 for detecting
esophageal adenocarcinoma. This study has intriguing and promising findings
for developing a methodology for the early detection of tumors. However, there
are several areas of concern that would need to be addressed:
1. Did SNF-Cy5.5 have a specific affinity to tumor cells even in vivo study as
similar to the in vitro one? Could you show the representative fluorescent
histopathological images demonstrating the SNF-Cy5.5 binding to tumor cells'
plasma membrane? In addition, histopathological images of liver and kidney
tissues are needed to evaluate the reason for the higher uptake.
2. The sentence was duplicated in line 23 of page 4.
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Is the study design appropriate to answer the research question (including the use
of appropriate controls), and are the conclusions supported by the evidence
presented?
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from apparent manipulation?
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