Basic Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Apr 15, 2022; 14(4): 858-871
Published online Apr 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i4.858
Bi-specific T1 positive-contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging molecular probe for hepatocellular carcinoma in an orthotopic mouse model
Xiao-Hong Ma, Kun Chen, Shuang Wang, Si-Yun Liu, Deng-Feng Li, Yong-Tao Mi, Zhi-Yuan Wu, Chun-Feng Qu, Xin-Ming Zhao
Xiao-Hong Ma, Shuang Wang, Deng-Feng Li, Yong-Tao Mi, Xin-Ming Zhao, Diagnostic Radiology, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China
Kun Chen, Zhi-Yuan Wu, Chun-Feng Qu, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Oncology, National Cancer Center/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China
Si-Yun Liu, GE Healthcare (China), Beijing 100176, China
Author contributions: Ma XH, Qu CF, and Zhao XM designed the research; Ma XH, Liu SY, Chen K, Wu ZY, Li DF and Mi YT performed the research; Ma XH, Wang S and Liu SY contributed new reagents or analytic tools; Ma XH, Liu SY, and Chen K analyzed the data and wrote the paper.
Supported by PUMC Youth Fund, No. 2017320010; Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) Research Fund, No. ZZ2016B01; and Beijing HopeRun Special Fund of Cancer Foundation of China, No. LC2016B15.
Institutional animal care and use committee statement: This study was approved by the ethics committee of National Cancer Center/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of the paper.
Data sharing statement: No additional data is available.
ARRIVE guidelines statement: The authors have read the ARRIVE guidelines, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the ARRIVE guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xin-Ming Zhao, MD, Chairman, Professor, Diagnostic Radiology, National Cancer Center/National Clinical Research Center for Cancer/Cancer Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, No. 17 Panjiayuan Nanli, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100021, China. zhaoxinming@cicams.ac.cn
Received: April 28, 2021
Peer-review started: April 28, 2021
First decision: July 14, 2021
Revised: August 31, 2021
Accepted: March 14, 2022
Article in press: March 14, 2022
Published online: April 15, 2022
Processing time: 351 Days and 15.7 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Use of single biomarkers might hinder the detection efficiency of existing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) molecular probes due to tumor heterogeneity, while negative (T2) contrast agents could result in inaccurate diagnoses. Therefore, we developed double-antigen-targeting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) probes for hepatic tumors by conjugating alpha-fetoprotein or glypican-3 antibodies simultaneously to a 5-nm ultra-small superparamagnetic iron oxide (USPIO) and investigated its performance in orthotopic HCC mouse model. The bi-specific T1-positive contrast-enhanced MRI probe for HCC demonstrated increased specificity and sensitivity to diagnose early-stage HCC irrespective of tumor size and/or heterogeneity. Moreover, the in vivo enhancement of imaging by the USPIO probes appeared dose-dependent and requires further investigation.