A Contrast-Enhanced Tri-Modal MRI Technique for High-Performance Hypoxia Imaging of Breast Cancer

Quanliang Mao; Mengyin Gu; Chengyuan Hong; Huiying Wang; Xinzhong Ruan; Zhusheng Liu; Bo Yuan; Mengting Xu; Chen Dong; Lei Mou; Xiang Gao; Guangyu Tang; Tianxiang Chen; Aiguo Wu; Yuning Pan

doi:10.1002/smll.202308850

A Contrast-Enhanced Tri-Modal MRI Technique for High-Performance Hypoxia Imaging of Breast Cancer

Small. 2024 Feb 16:e2308850. doi: 10.1002/smll.202308850. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Quanliang Mao¹, Mengyin Gu¹, Chengyuan Hong², Huiying Wang¹, Xinzhong Ruan¹, Zhusheng Liu², Bo Yuan², Mengting Xu², Chen Dong², Lei Mou², Xiang Gao³, Guangyu Tang⁴, Tianxiang Chen^{2

5}, Aiguo Wu², Yuning Pan^{1

4

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University, 59 Liuting Street, Ningbo, 315010, P. R. China.
² Cixi Institute of Biomedical Engineering, International Cooperation Base of Biomedical Materials Technology and Application, CAS Key Laboratory of Magnetic Materials and Devices and Zhejiang Engineering Research Center for Biomedical Materials, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Ningbo Key Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging Probe Materials and Technology, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, 315201, P. R. China.
³ Department of Neurosurgery, First Affiliated Hospital of Ningbo University, Ningbo, 315010, P. R. China.
⁴ Department of Radiology, Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital of Tongji University, Shanghai, 200072, P. R. China.
⁵ Ningbo Clinical Research Center for Medical Imaging, Ningbo, 315010, P. R. China.

PMID: 38366271
DOI: 10.1002/smll.202308850

Abstract

Personalized radiotherapy strategies enabled by the construction of hypoxia-guided biological target volumes (BTVs) can overcome hypoxia-induced radioresistance by delivering high-dose radiotherapy to targeted hypoxic areas of the tumor. However, the construction of hypoxia-guided BTVs is difficult owing to lack of precise visualization of hypoxic areas. This study synthesizes a hypoxia-responsive T₁ , T₂ , T₂ mapping tri-modal MRI molecular nanoprobe (SPION@ND) and provides precise imaging of hypoxic tumor areas by utilizing the advantageous features of tri-modal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). SPION@ND exhibits hypoxia-triggered dispersion-aggregation structural transformation. Dispersed SPION@ND can be used for routine clinical BTV construction using T₁ -contrast MRI. Conversely, aggregated SPION@ND can be used for tumor hypoxia imaging assessment using T₂ -contrast MRI. Moreover, by introducing T₂ mapping, this work designs a novel method (adjustable threshold-based hypoxia assessment) for the precise assessment of tumor hypoxia confidence area and hypoxia level. Eventually this work successfully obtains hypoxia tumor target and accurates hypoxia tumor target, and achieves a one-stop hypoxia-guided BTV construction. Compared to the positron emission tomography-based hypoxia assessment, SPION@ND provides a new method that allows safe and convenient imaging of hypoxic tumor areas in clinical settings.

Keywords: biological target volume; hypoxia imaging; magnetic resonance imaging; nanoprobe; radioresistance; tumor hypoxia.

Abstract

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