In Vivo Evaluation of a Miniaturized Fluorescence Molecular Tomography (FMT) Endoscope for Breast Cancer Detection Using Targeted Nanoprobes

In this study, in vivo animal experiments with 12 nude mice bearing breast-cancer-patient-tissue-derived xenograft (PDX) tumors were performed aiming to verify the imaging capability of a novel miniaturized fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) endoscope, in combination with targeted nanoparticle–near-infrared (NIR) dye conjugates. Tumor-bearing mice were divided into two groups by systematic injection with urokinase plasminogen activator receptor-targeted (n = 7) and nontargeted (n = 5) imaging nanoprobes as a contrast agent, respectively. Each mouse was imaged at 6, 24, and 48 h following the injection of nanoprobes using the FMT endoscope. The results show that systemic delivery of targeted nanoprobes produced a 4-fold enhancement in fluorescence signals from tumors, compared with tumors that received nontargeted nanoprobes. This study indicates that our miniaturized FMT endoscope, coupled with the targeted nanoparticle–NIR dye conjugates as a contrast agent, has high sensitivity and specificity, and thus great potential to be used for image-guided detection and removal of a primary tumor and local metastatic tumors during surgery.