To assess our improved NACA for the detection of tumor necrosis.
We increased the blood circulation time of our NACA by adding an albumin-binding domain to the molecular structure. We tested the necrosis avidity on dead or alive cultured cells and performed SPECT and fluorescence imaging of both spontaneous and treatment-induced necrosis in murine breast cancer models. We simultaneously recorded [ ¹⁸ F]FDG-PET and bioluminescence images for complementary detection of tumor viability.
We generated two albumin-binding IRDye800CW derivatives which were labeled with indium-111 with high radiochemical purity. Surprisingly, both albumin-binding NACAs had >10x higher in vitro binding towards dead cells. We selected [ ¹¹¹ In]3 for in vivo experiments which showed higher dead cell binding in vitro and in vivo stability. The doxorubicin-treated tumors showed increased [ ¹¹¹ In]3-uptake (1.74 ± 0.08%ID/g after saline treatment, 2.25 ± 0.16%ID/g after doxorubicin treatment, p = 0.044) and decreased [ ¹⁸ F]FDG-uptake (3.02 ± 0.51%ID/g after saline treatment, 1.79 ± 0.11%ID/g after doxorubicin treatment, p = 0.040), indicating therapy efficacy. Moreover, we detected increased [ ¹¹¹ In]3-uptake and tumor necrosis in more rapidly growing EMT6 tumors.
Our albumin-binding NACA based on IRDye800CW facilitates tumor-necrosis imaging for assessment of therapy efficacy and aggressiveness in solid tumors using both fluorescence and SPECT imaging.