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Updated: Aug 20, 2025
Non-Invasive PET/MR Imaging in an Orthotopic Mouse Model of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Published on: August 31, 2022
Integrin α6 Targeted Near Infrared Fluorescent Imaging and Photoacoustic Imaging of Hepatocellular Carcinoma in Mice
Yan-Zhu Lin1, You Wu1, De-Hai Cao1
1State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.
Background And Aims:
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the fourth most common cause of cancer-related death and ranks sixth in terms of incident cases worldwide. The purpose of this study was to develop an effective and sensitive method to distinguish liver cancer tissues from normal tissues in HCC patients. Integrin α6 is a promising cell surface target for molecular imaging of HCC, where it is overexpressed and is a prognostic biomarker. We previously identified an integrin α6-targeted peptide CRWYDENAC (RWY) that has been used for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of HCC in mouse models.
Methods:
We labeled the integrin α6-targeted RWY peptide with cyanine 7 (Cy7) to form an optical probe (Cy7-RWY) for near infrared fluorescent (NIRF) and photoacoustic (PA) imaging in HCC. Mice transplanted with subcutaneous HCC-LM3 or orthotopic HCC-H22 cells that overexpressed integrin α6 were intravenously injected with Cy7-RWY and its corresponding Cy7-control. NIRF and PA images of mice were collected from 0 to 48 h after injection.
Results:
Both NIRF and PA signals started to accumulate in the tumor 2 h after injection of Cy7-RWY and peaked at 24 h.
Conclusions:
Cy7-RWY is a promising optical probe for NIRF and PA imaging of HCC in mice, and has potential clinical application for HCC detection.
