近日，湖南大学的谭蔚泓&张晓兵&宋国胜及其研究团队取得一项新进展。经过不懈努力，他们实现活体内的超声诱导发光分子成像。相关研究成果已于2024年2月16日在国际知名学术期刊《自然—光子学》上发表。
该研究团队报道了一种创新的成像技术，该技术利用超声波通过两步粒子内能量转换激活发光分子或纳米粒子。这一过程中，超声波通过压电效应将机械能转化为化学能，进而通过化学发光效应激发发光。研究人员展示了两种超声诱导发光成像模式：一种是延迟成像，即在超声激励停止后实现；另一种是实时成像，即在超声激励过程中直接观察。与传统的水声致发光相比，该技术实现了高达2000倍的发光强度增强，同时信噪比提升了10倍，空间分辨率达到了1.46mm，组织穿透深度高达2.2cm。
研究团队进一步验证了这一成像技术在多种生物医学应用中的实用性，包括皮下和原位肿瘤的成像、淋巴结的绘制以及腹膜转移肿瘤的筛选。此外，他们还设计了基于共振能量转移的分析物激活发光探针，用于评估药物诱导的肝毒性并区分药物治疗后肿瘤的反应性。研究人员期望这项技术能够进一步实现临床前和临床应用，例如活体动物组织病理学病变的研究，肿瘤的早期检测，生物分子的分析和癌症治疗或预后的监测等。
据悉，光学成像在研究生物或病理过程以及诊断疾病中发挥着关键作用。然而，由于组织穿透性的限制，传统的光学成像方法常常受限。
附：英文原文
Title: In vivo ultrasound-induced luminescence molecular imaging
Author: Wang, Youjuan, Yi, Zhigao, Guo, Jing, Liao, Shiyi, Li, Zhe, Xu, Shuai, Yin, Baoli, Liu, Yongchao, Feng, Yurong, Rong, Qiming, Liu, Xiaogang, Song, Guosheng, Zhang, Xiao-Bing, Tan, Weihong
Issue&Volume: 2024-02-16
Abstract: Optical imaging is crucial to study biological or pathological processes and diagnose diseases. However, poor tissue penetration typically limits conventional optical imaging. Here we report an imaging technique that uses ultrasound to activate luminescent molecules or nanoparticles through two-step intraparticle energy conversion. Ultrasonic activation can convert mechanical fluctuations into chemical energy via the piezoelectric effect and then induce luminescence via the chemiluminescent effect. We demonstrate two modalities for ultrasound-induced luminescence imaging: one achieves delayed imaging after cessation of the ultrasonic excitation, and the other enables real-time imaging during the ultrasonic excitation. Our imaging modality offers an improvement in luminescence intensity of up to 2,000-fold compared with sonoluminescence of H2O, a 10-fold improved of signal-to-noise ratio compared with fluorescence imaging, a spatial resolution of 1.46mm and tissue penetration of up to 2.2cm. We demonstrate its applicability for imaging subcutaneous and orthotopic tumours, mapping lymph nodes and screening peritoneal metastatic tumours. Furthermore, we design analyte-activatable luminescence probes based on resonance energy transfer, which can assess drug-induced hepatotoxicity and distinguish the responsivity of tumours after drug treatment. We expect that our technique will enable further preclinical and clinical applications, such as the study of histopathological lesions in living animals, the early detection of tumours, the profiling of biological molecules and the monitoring of cancer treatment or prognosis, among others.
DOI: 10.1038/s41566-024-01387-1
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-024-01387-1