Met-Targeted Dual-Modal MRI/NIR II Imaging for Specific Recognition of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) are one of the most common cancers with poor survival rates, which is attributed to the difficulty in the early detection of disease. However, conventional imaging methods lack accuracy and sensitivity in the early diagnosis of HNSCCs. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop an effective and sensitive approach for HNSCC imaging. As known, the cMet receptor is overexpressed in HNSCC tumor cells CAL27 and tumor tissues. Herein, we synthesize the dual-modal near-infrared II (NIR II) imaging of luminescence and T₁ magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based nanoprobes with the cMet targeting binding peptide (NaGdF₄-PEG-cMBP), which has strong upconversion/NIR II luminescence and higher R₁ relaxivity compared with the commercially used gadolinium acid (5.871 vs 3.471 mM^-1 s^-1). Additionally, the luminescence imaging of Yb,Er,Ce-doped probes showed that the material can efficiently accumulate in HNSCC tumors with the cMet-targeted. It can be clearly visualized in both subcutaneous and orthotopic HNSCC tumor models by dual-modal T₁-weighted MRI and NIR II luminescence imaging methods. The results demonstrate that our cMBP-conjugated nanoplatform may provide a novel and very efficient noninvasive diagnostic approach for HNSCC in the near future.