Evaluation of a dimeric-cRGD peptide for targeted PET-CT imaging of peripheral angiogenesis in diabetic mice

Sci Rep. 2018 Mar 29;8(1):5401. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-23372-9.

Abstract

The α V β3 integrin plays an important role in many physiological functions and pathological disorders. α V β3 is minimally expressed in normal quiescent endothelial cells, but significantly upregulated during neovascularization. In this study, we evaluated a 64Cu-labeled dimeric cRGD tracer targeted at α V β3 integrin and report its applicability to assess peripheral angiogenesis in diabetes mellitus (DM). We established a murine model of type-1 DM characterized by elevated glucose, glycated serum protein (GSP), and glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c). We demonstrated that our imaging probe is specific to α V β3 integrin under both normo- and hyperglycemic conditions. We found that the analysis of in vivo PET-CT images correlated well with gamma well counting (GWC). Both GWC and PET-CT imaging demonstrated increased uptake of 64Cu-NOTA-PEG4-cRGD2 in the ischemic hindlimb in contrast to non-ischemic control. GWC of the distal ischemic tissue from DM mice showed significantly lower probe accumulation than in non-DM mice. The immunofluorescence staining of the ischemic tissues showed a 3-fold reduction in CD31 and 4-fold reduction in the α V β3 expression in DM vs. non-DM animals. In conclusion, we successfully demonstrated that diabetes-associated reductions in peripheral angiogenesis can be non-invasively detected with PET-CT imaging using targeted dimeric-cRGD probe.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Biomarkers / metabolism
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / chemically induced
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / diagnostic imaging
  • Diabetes Mellitus, Experimental / pathology*
  • Dimerization
  • Disease Models, Animal
  • Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells
  • Humans
  • Integrin alphaVbeta3 / chemistry
  • Integrin alphaVbeta3 / metabolism
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C57BL
  • Microscopy, Fluorescence
  • Neovascularization, Physiologic*
  • Peptides, Cyclic / chemistry
  • Peptides, Cyclic / metabolism*
  • Positron Emission Tomography Computed Tomography*
  • Protein Binding
  • Radiopharmaceuticals / chemistry
  • Radiopharmaceuticals / metabolism
  • Tissue Distribution

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Integrin alphaVbeta3
  • Peptides, Cyclic
  • Radiopharmaceuticals
  • cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid peptide