Using Fluorescence Imaging to Track Drug Delivery and Guide Treatment Planning In Vivo

Imaging has become an indispensable tool in both clinical medicine and preclinical sciences. It enables doctors to locate sites of cancer/disease, track drug delivery, and guide operative planning, thus enhancing the treatment efficacy. Recently, we developed a multimodal theranostic lipid nanoparticles, named HPPS(NIR)-chol-siRNA with its built-in near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probe core as a useful surrogate for tracking small interfering RNA (siRNA) delivery. By using the image co-registration of computed tomography (CT) and fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT), we achieved noninvasive assessment and treatment planning of siRNA delivery into the orthotopic tumor, thus enabling efficacious RNA interference (RNAi) therapy. In this chapter, we introduce this method to illustrate the use of CT-FMT co-registration for tracking drug delivery and guiding treatment planning in vivo.