Design and development of nanoprobes radiolabelled with 99mTc for the diagnosis and monitoring of therapeutic interventions in oncology preclinical research

Abstract

Previous studies employing polymeric micelles and molecular imaging for in vivo nanosystem characterization have led to the development of radionanoprobes (RNPs) designed for diagnosing and monitoring therapeutic interventions in preclinical oncology research, specifically within breast and colon cancer models. These models exhibit high GLUT1 expression on tumor cells and VEGFR expression on the tumor vasculature. We aimed to enhance the tumor-targeting specificity of these RNPs by functionalizing micelles with glucose and bevacizumab. The choice of 99mTc to label the nanoprobes is based on its availability and that direct labeling method is a widespread strategy to prepare radiopharmaceuticals using cold reagents and a 99Mo/99mTc generator. Soluplus® is an attractive polymer for synthesizing micelles that also allows their functionalization. With all the above, the objective of this work was to design, develop and characterize nanoprobes based on polymeric micelles and radiolabeled with 99mTc for the characterization of biological processes associated to the diagnosis, prognosis and monitoring of animal models of breast and colon cancer in preclinical research using molecular images.