Cyanine-based dual modality imaging probes for NIR fluorescence and nuclear imaging of metastatic tumor in the brain

Objectives An estimated 40% of cancer patients develop brain metastasis, which is prevalent in breast cancer, lung cancer, and melanoma. One of the main reasons for the failure of tumor detection in the brain is the presence of blood-brain and blood-tumor barriers (BBB/BTB), which limit the delivery of diagnostic agents from the systemic circulation to tumors. In this study, we investigated the capability of multi-modality imaging probes on the detection of brain metastasis in the brain.

Methods We synthesized cyanine-based SPECT/NIRF multi-modality imaging probes (111In-DOTA-NIR790) for NIR fluorescence and nuclear imaging (SPECT) of brain metastatic tumor.

Results The SPECT/CT image showed high radioactivity in brain metastasis of breast cancer, which was in agreement with NIR fluorescence imaging and biodistribution performed by γ-counting.

Conclusions The radionuclide-labeled probe could be delivered to the tumor across the BBB, and offer multi-modalities for NIR fluorescence and nuclear imaging (SPECT) to detect metastatic tumor in the brain