Carmen Burtea1, Sophie Laurent1,
Eric Lancelot2, Olivier Rousseaux2, Sbastien Ballet2,
Coralie Thirifays1, Marc Port2, Grard Toubeau3,
Luce Vander Elst1, Claire Corot2, Robert Nicolas Muller1
1General, Organic and Biomedical
Chemistry, NMR and Molecular Imaging Laboratory, University of Mons, Mons,
Belgium; 2Research Center, Guerbet, Aulnay-sous-Bois, France; 3Laboratory
of Histology, University of Mons, Mons, Belgium
A
VCAM-1-targeted cyclic heptapeptide
peptide was conjugated to USPIO (USPIO-R832), and VCAM-1 binding was
first confirmed on HUVEC stimulated with TNF-alpha. Subsequently, USPIO-R832
was evaluated by MRI at 4.7T on ApoE-KO mice, by using T2 and T2*-weighted
imaging sequences. The ability to bind to atherosclerotic plaque of this
molecular imaging probe was furthermore corroborated by histochemistry. The
control imaging probe was represented by USPIO vectorized by a non-specific
peptide (USPIO-NSP).