Iodine-124 Based Dual Positron Emission Tomography and Fluorescent Labeling Reagents for In Vivo Cell Tracking

Understanding the in vivo behavior of experimental therapeutic cells is fundamental to their successful development and clinical translation. Iodine-124 has the longest half-life (4.2 days) among the clinically used positron emitters. Consequently, this isotope offers the longest possible tracking time for directly labeled cells using positron emission tomography (PET). Herein, we have radiosynthesized and evaluated two iodine-124/fluorescein-based dual PET and fluorescent labeling reagents, namely ¹²⁴I-FIT-Mal and ¹²⁴I-FIT-(PhS)₂Mal for cell surface thiol bioconjugation. ¹²⁴I-FIT-(PhS)₂Mal labeled cells significantly more effectively than ¹²⁴I-FIT-Mal. It conjugated to various cell lines in 22%-62% labeling efficiencies with prolonged iodine-124 retention. ¹²⁴I-FIT-(PhS)₂Mal mainly conjugated on the cell membrane, which was confirmed by high-resolution fluorescence imaging. The migration of ¹²⁴I-FIT-(PhS)₂Mal labeled Jurkat cells was visualized in NSG mice with excellent target-to-background contrast using PET/CT over 7 days. These data demonstrate that ¹²⁴I-FIT-(PhS)₂Mal can dynamically track cell migration in vivo using PET/CT over a clinically relevant time frame.