Due to its high resolution, micro-CT is desirable for molecular imaging of
tumor angiogenesis. However, the sensitivity of micro-CT to
contrast agents is relatively low. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to develop high micro-CT sensitive molecular imaging probes for direct visualization and dynamic monitoring of
tumor angiogenesis. To this end,
Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD)
peptides conjugated
magnetite nano clusters (RGD-MNCs) were developed by assembling individual
magnetite nano particles into clusters with amphiphilic (
maleimide) methoxypoly(
ethylene glycol)-b-
poly(lactic acid) ((Mal)
mPEG-PLA) copolymer and subsequently encoding RGD
peptides onto the clusters for specific targeting alpha(v)
beta3 integrin. The hydrodynamic size of RGD-MNCs was about 85 nm. To test its specificity, alpha(v)beta3 positive cells (H1299) were incubated with
magnetite nano clusters (MNCs), RGD-MNCs or RGD-MNCs competition with free RGD
peptides.
Prussian Blue staining and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES) measurements indicated that the cell uptake of RGD-MNCs was significantly more than that of MNCs, which could be inhibited by free RGD
peptides. For detection of
tumor angiogenesis, mice bearing H1299
tumors were injected intravenously with RGD-MNCs at the dose of 400 micro mol Fe/kg.
Tumor angiogenic hot spots as well as individual angiogenic vessels could be clearly manifested by micro-CT imaging 12 h post injection, which was dynamically monitored with the extension of probe circulation time. Subsequent histological studies of
tumor tissues verified that RGD-MNCs registered
tumor angiogenic vessels. Our study demonstrated that RGD-MNC probes fabricated in this study could be used to effectively target alpha(v)
beta3 integrin. Using high resolution micro-CT in combination with the probes,
tumor angiogenesis could be studied dynamically.