Novel albumin-binding multifunctional probe for synergistic enhancement of FL/MR dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy

Cheng Yu; Zhuyuan Ding; Huan Liu; Yulu Ren; Minping Zhang; Qiuling Liao; Tao Luo; Lujing Gao; Shiyi Lyu; Huiwen Tan; Linan Hu; Zhu Chen; Pengfei Xu; Enhua Xiao

doi:10.3389/fchem.2023.1253379

Novel albumin-binding multifunctional probe for synergistic enhancement of FL/MR dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy

Front Chem. 2023 Aug 1:11:1253379. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2023.1253379. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Cheng Yu¹, Zhuyuan Ding¹, Huan Liu¹, Yulu Ren¹, Minping Zhang¹, Qiuling Liao¹, Tao Luo¹, Lujing Gao¹, Shiyi Lyu¹, Huiwen Tan¹, Linan Hu², Zhu Chen¹, Pengfei Xu^{3

4}, Enhua Xiao¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, The Second Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, China.
² Department of Radiology, Zhuzhou Central Hospital, Zhuzhou, Hunan, China.
³ Translational Pharmaceutical Laboratory, Jining First People's Hospital, Shandong First Medical University, Jining, China.
⁴ Institute of Translational Pharmacy, Jining Medical Research Academy, Jining, China.

Abstract

The fluorescence/magnetic resonance (FL/MR) dual-modal imaging could provide accurate tumor visualization to guide photothermal therapy (PTT) of cancer, which has attracted widespread attention from scientists. However, facile and effective strategies to synergistically enhance fluorescence intensity, MR contrast and photothermal efficacy have rarely been reported. This study presents a novel multifunctional probe Gd-EB-ICG (GI) for FL/MR dual-modal imaging-guided PTT of cancer. GIs can self-assemble with endogenous albumin to form drug-albumin complexes (GIAs), which exhibit excellent biocompatibility. Albumin can protect GIAs from the recognition and clearance by the mononuclear phagocytic system (MPS). High plasma concentration and long half-life allow GIAs to accumulate continuously in the tumor area through EPR effect and specific uptake of tumor. Because of the prolonged rotational correlation time (τR) of Gd chelates, GIAs exhibited superior MR contrast performance over GIs with more than 3 times enhancement of longitudinal relaxation efficiency (r₁). The fluorescence quantum yield and photothermal conversion efficiency of GIAs was also significantly improved due to the constrained geometry, disrupted aggregation and enhanced photothermal stability. This simple and feasible strategy successfully resulted in a synergistic effect for FL/MR dual-modal imaging and photothermal therapy, which can cast a new light for the clinical translation of multifunctional probes.

Keywords: MRI; albumin; drug delivery; fluorescence imaging; photothermal therapy.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the Shandong Provincial Natural Science Foundation (grant no. ZR2022MH099); Clinical Research Center for Medical Imaging in Hunan Province (grant no. 2020SK4001); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities of Central South University (grant nos 2022ZZTS0829, 2021ZZTS1053 and 2022ZZTS0884); Joint Project between Provincial Natural Science Foundation and Science and technology of Hunan (grant no. 2022JJ70142).