SPECT/NIRF Dual Modality Imaging for Detection of Intraperitoneal Colon Tumor with an Avidin/Biotin Pretargeting System

We describe herein dual-modality imaging of intraperitoneal colon tumor using an avidin/biotin pretargeting system. A novel dual-modality probe, (99m)Tc-HYNIC-lys(Cy5.5)-PEG(4)-biotin, was designed, synthesized and characterized. Single-photon emission computed tomography/ computed tomography (SPECT/CT) imaging and near infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging were developed using intraperitoneal LS180 human colon adenocarcinoma xenografts. Following avidin preinjection for 4 hours, (99m)Tc-HYNIC-lys(Cy5.5)-PEG(4)-biotin could successfully detect colon tumors of different sizes inside the abdominal region using both modalities, and the imaging results showed no differences. Biodistribution studies demonstrated that the tumors had a very high uptake of the probe (99m)Tc-HYNIC-lys(Cy5.5)-PEG(4)-biotin (12.74 ± 1.89% ID/g at 2 h p.i.), and the clearance from blood and other normal tissues occured very fast. The low tumor uptake in the non-pretargeted mice (1.63 ± 0.50% ID/g at 2 h p.i.) and tumor cell staining results showed excellent tumor binding specificity of the pretargeting system. The ability of the novel probe to show excellent imaging quality with high tumor-to-background contrast, a high degree of binding specificity with tumors and excellent in vivo biodistribution pharmacokinetics should prove that the avidin/biotin based dual-modality pretargeting probe is a promising imaging tool during the entire period of tumor diagnosis and treatment.