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Development of a new concept imaging probe that detects hypoxia and diagnoses tumors 2022 > Representative Research Publications > Research Results Home

Development of a new concept imaging probe that detects hypoxia and diagnoses tumors

  • Journal of Medicinal Chemistry / May 2022
  • Sanu Karan, Mi Young Cho(First author), Jee-Hyun Cho, Jonathan L. Sessler, Kwan Soo Hong(Corresponding author)

Research Summary

Hypoxia is an common characteristic of solid tumor tissues, resulting from limited blood supply, and inadequate oxygen delivery. Various disease states are associated with chronic hypoxia, including cancer, intracellular infectious diseases, coronary and peripheral artery disease, alchol induced liver injury and gastrointestinal inflammatory conditions. Sensing hypoxia effectively could lead to more favorable clinical outcomes. Here we describe the synthesis and evaluation of a dual-action probe that permits hypoxia-activated chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) magnetic resonance (MR) and optical imaging of hypoxic tissues. It exploits the complementary strengths of these disparate modalities allowing for potential enhancements in diagnostic capability. We report here an emissive probe (NO2-Eu) for tumor hypoxia detection and cancer cell imaging. In CT26 cells, this NO2-Eu probe not only provides an enhanced CEST MRI signal but also turns “on” the optical signal under hypoxic conditions. Time dependent in vivo CEST imaging in a hypoxic CT26 tumor xenograft mouse model revealed probe-dependent tumor detection by CEST MRI contrast in the tumor area. We thus suggest that dual-action probes such as the one described here may have a role to play in both in vitro and in vivo hypoxia imaging studies.

Expected Outcomes

We suggest that dual-action hypoxia probes, could have a role to play in solid tumor diagnosis and monitoring.

Related Figures

[Figure 1] Schematic diagram of the activation of the imaging probe [Figure 1] Schematic diagram of the activation of the imaging probe

[Figure 2] Schematic representation of the NTR activation process and in vitro and in vivo CEST MRI detection of the bimodal probe NO2-Eu. [Figure 2] Schematic representation of the NTR activation process and in vitro and in vivo CEST MRI detection of
the bimodal probe NO2-Eu.

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