Organic Small Molecule Contrast Agent for Targeted Photoacoustic Imaging of Patient-Derived Brain Tumors

Traditional glioblastoma (GBM) cell lines do not maintain the heterogeneity of the original tumor, cell interactions, and therapy response, thus limiting their investigation in GBM theranostics. Herein, a kind of GBM tumor-targeting nanoparticles (NPs) TCFNP@iRGD are designed and constructed, which are generated by photoacoustic (PA) contrast agent 2-(3-cyano-4,5,5-trimethylfuran-2(5H)-ylidene) malononitrile (TCF)-OH through facile nanoprecipitation and decorated with an active targeting ligand iRGD. Their potential in GBM detection via PA imaging on glioma patient-derived cells intracranial xenograft models is evaluated for the first time. Excellent tumor-specific PA mapping performance of GBM is realized by TCFNP@iRGD, demonstrating its promising potential in the clinical diagnosis of GBM.

Automated summary

Traditional GBM cell lines cannot maintain the complexity of the original tumor, limiting their usefulness in GBM theranostics. In this study, a new type of tumor-targeting nanoparticle TCFNP@iRGD was designed and evaluated for GBM detection using PA imaging. The results showed that TCFNP@iRGD demonstrated excellent tumor-specific mapping performance, indicating its promising potential in the clinical diagnosis of GBM.