PET/NIR-II fluorescence imaging and image-guided surgery of glioblastoma using a folate receptor α-targeted dual-modal nanoprobe.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

The surgery of glioblastoma (GBM) requires a maximal resection of the tumor when it is safe and feasible. The infiltrating growth property of the GBM makes it a challenge for neurosurgeons to identify the tumor tissue even with the assistance of the surgical microscope. This highlights the urgent requirement for imaging techniques that can differentiate tumor tissues during surgery in real time. Fluorescence image-guided surgery of GBM has been investigated using several non-specific fluorescent probes that emit light in the visible and the first near-infrared window (NIR-I, 700-900 nm), which limit the detection accuracy because of the non-specific targeting mechanism and spectral characteristics. Targeted NIR-II (1000-1700 nm) fluorescent probes for GBM are thus highly desired. The folate receptor (FR) has been reported to be upregulated in GBM, which renders it to be a promising target for specific tumor imaging.

METHODS:

In this study, the folic acid (FA) that can target the FR was conjugated with the clinically approved indocyanine green (ICG) dye and DOTA chelator for radiolabeling with 64Cu to achieve targeted positron emission tomography (PET) and fluorescence imaging of GBM.

RESULTS:

Surprisingly it was found that the resulted bioconjugate, DOTA-FA-ICG and non-radioactive natCu-DOTA-FA-ICG, were both self-assembled into nanoparticles with NIR-II emission signal. The radiolabeled DOTA-FA-ICG, 64Cu-DOTA-FA-ICG, was found to specifically accumulate in the orthotopic GBM models using in vivo PET, NIR-II, and NIR-I fluorescence imaging. The best time window of fluorescence imaging was demonstrated to be 24 h after DOTA-FA-ICG injection. NIR-II fluorescence image-guided surgery was successfully conducted in the orthotopic GBM models using DOTA-FA-ICG. All the fluorescent tissue was removed and proved to be GBM by the H&E examination.

CONCLUSION:

Overall, our study demonstrates that the probes, 64Cu-DOTA-FA-ICG and DOTA-FA-ICG, hold promise for preoperative PET examination and intraoperative NIR-II fluorescence image-guided surgery of GBM, respectively.

• Authors: Xiaojing Shi, Pengfei Xu, Caiguang Cao, Zhen Cheng, Jie Tian, Zhenhua Hu
• Journal: European journal of nuclear medicine and molecular imaging (Eur J Nucl Med Mol Imaging) Vol. 49 Issue 13 Pg. 4325-4337 (Nov 2022) ISSN: 1619-7089 [Electronic] Germany
• PMID: 35838757 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: © 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.

Chemical References

• Indocyanine Green
• Fluorescent Dyes
• Folate Receptor 1
• Folic Acid
• Chelating Agents

Topics

• Humans
• Glioblastoma (diagnostic imaging, surgery)
• Indocyanine Green
• Fluorescent Dyes
• Folate Receptor 1
• Optical Imaging (methods)
• Surgery, Computer-Assisted (methods)
• Positron-Emission Tomography (methods)
• Folic Acid
• Chelating Agents