Abstract
Purpose
The poor tissue penetration of visible light has been a major barrier for optical imaging, photoactivatable conversions, and photodynamic therapy for in vivo targets with depths beyond 10 mm. In this report, as a proof-of-concept, we demonstrated that a positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracer, 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose (18FDG), could be used as an alternative light source for photoactivation.
Procedures
We utilized 18FDG, which is a metabolic activity-based PET probe, as a source of light to photoactivate caged luciferin in a breast cancer animal model expressing luciferase.
Results
Bioluminescence produced from luciferin allowed for the real-time monitoring of Cherenkov radiation-promoted uncaging of the substrate.
Conclusion
The proposed method may provide a very important option for in vivo photoactivation, in particular for activation of photosensitizers for photodynamic therapy and eventually for combining radioisotope therapy and photodynamic therapy.
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A.M. declares the payment for lectures outside the submitted work.
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SI Fig. 1
The LC–MS spectra of a water solution of DMNP-luciferin irradiated with UV 365 nm light for 5 min. Insert mass spectra of the released luciferin (left) and the unreacted DMNP-luciferin (right). (PDF 27 kb)
SI Fig. 2
a Bioluminescence images of mice bearing luciferase-expressing tumors injected with luciferin. b Quantitative analysis of the images in (a). (PDF 602 kb)
SI Fig. 3
Full-time course optical signal from tumor sites of control mice injected with 18FDG only. (PDF 58 kb)
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Ran, C., Zhang, Z., Hooker, J. et al. In Vivo Photoactivation Without “Light”: Use of Cherenkov Radiation to Overcome the Penetration Limit of Light. Mol Imaging Biol 14, 156–162 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-011-0489-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-011-0489-z