RESUMEN
Non-invasive imaging and quantification of human beta cell mass remains a major challenge. We performed pre-clinical in vivo validation of a peptide previously discovered by our group, namely, P88 that targets a beta cell specific biomarker, FXYD2γa. We conjugated P88 with DOTA and then complexed it with GdCl3 to obtain the MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) contrast agent (CA) Gd-DOTA-P88. A scrambled peptide was used as a negative control CA, namely Gd-DOTA-Scramble. The CAs were injected in immunodeficient mice implanted with EndoC-ßH1 cells, a human beta cell line that expresses FXYD2γa similarly to primary human beta cells. The xenograft-bearing mice were analyzed by MRI. At the end, the mice were euthanized and the CA biodistribution was evaluated on the excised tissues by measuring the Gd concentration with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The MRI and biodistribution studies indicated that Gd-DOTA-P88 accumulates in EndoC-ßH1 xenografts above the level observed in the background tissue, and that its uptake is significantly higher than that observed for Gd-DOTA-Scramble. In addition, the Gd-DOTA-P88 showed good xenograft-to-muscle and xenograft-to-liver uptake ratios, two potential sites of human islets transplantation. The CA shows good potential for future use to non-invasively image implanted human beta cells.
Asunto(s)
Medios de Contraste , Compuestos Heterocíclicos , Células Secretoras de Insulina/metabolismo , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética , Imagen Molecular , Compuestos Organometálicos , ATPasa Intercambiadora de Sodio-Potasio/metabolismo , Animales , Biomarcadores , Células CHO , Medios de Contraste/química , Cricetulus , Expresión Génica , Compuestos Heterocíclicos/química , Xenoinjertos , Humanos , Células Secretoras de Insulina/trasplante , Imagen por Resonancia Magnética/métodos , Masculino , Ratones , Imagen Molecular/métodos , Compuestos Organometálicos/química , ATPasa Intercambiadora de Sodio-Potasio/genéticaRESUMEN
A new facile synthetic strategy was developed to prepare bifunctional monophosphinic acid Ln-DOTA derivatives, Gd-DO2AGAPNBn and Gd- DO2AGAPABn. The relaxivities of the Gd-complexes are enhanced compared to Gd-DOTA. Monophosphinic acid arm of these Gd-complexes affords enhancement of inner sphere water exchange rate due to its steric bulkiness. The different functionalities of DO2AGAPNBn were appended in trans positions and are designed to conjugate identical or different vectors according to the potential applications. The conjugation of Gd-DO2AGAPABn with E3 peptide known to target apoptosis was successfully performed and in vivo MRI allowed cell death detection in a mouse model.