Manabu Kinoshita1, Yoshichika Yoshioka2,
Yoshiko Okita1, Naoya Hashimoto1, Toshiki Yoshimine1
1Department of Neurosurgery, Osaka
University Medical School, Suita, Osaka, Japan; 2High Performance
Bioimaging Research Facility, Osaka University, Graduate School of Frontier
Biosciences, Suita, Osaka, Japan
In
vivo molecular imaging is a rapidly growing research area both for basic and
clinical science. Non-invasive imaging of in vivo conditions in a molecular
level will help understand the biological characteristics of normal and
diseased tissues without performing surgical invasive procedures. Among
various imaging modalities, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has gained
interest as a molecular imaging modality for its high special resolution. In
this research, we have demonstrated that the combined use of HER-2 targeting
Affibody, a small 7kDa molecule that behaves similarly to antibodies, and superparamagnetic
iron oxide (SPIO) can non-invasively image HER-2 expressing cells or tissues
both in vitro and in vivo by MRI. This preliminary study demonstrates that
Affibody-SPIO is a feasible target specific contrast agent for in vivo
MR-molecular imaging.
Keywords