Clinically, FLI has probably the greatest potential for use in endoscopy and tumor margin detection for diagnostic and surgical applications. Recently, an orthotopic hypervascular glioma was detected and monitored in vivo using a dual PARACEST and fluorescent contrast agent[6]. This study showed a potential for this dual modality probe for non-surgical glioma detection via MRI and clinical surgical excision interventions via fluorescence detection. In many studies, optical neuroimaging information is enhanced by anatomical co-registration with X-ray or reflectance images. In addition, multimodal imaging can be extended with cross-platform MR imaging as above. Using the Bruker MMAB for cross-platform transfer/imaging, optical studies can now be directly combined with PET, SPECT, MRI and CT to investigate multimodal research applications. The MMAB is compatible with the Bruker In-Vivo Xtreme II Optical/X-ray system, Bruker BioSpec MRI systems, ICON MRI, Bruker Albira SiPET/SPECT/CT and Bruker microCT 1176 and 1278.
The prevalence of TBI in civilian life, professional sports and the military arena globally has prompted the development of preclinical models to study the nature, extent and possible treatments for TBI. Non-invasive optical imaging of TBI in rats has been successfully conducted by Dr. Chu Chun et. al. (Temple University, personal communication). Here, the extent of cerebral tissue damage was assessed using a NIR probe, PSVue 794, which contains a polycationic Zn-DPA moiety that binds to exposed anionic PS residues present in high concentrations in the membranes of apoptotic, dead or dying cells. At 24 hrs post CCI trauma, either PSVue 794 (3 mg/kg), or PBS (at an equal volume) was administered IV. Animals were imaged at 0, 2, 9.5 and 24 hours following administration of probe (Figure 1A). In vivo analysis showed that signal persisted at the site of CCI. Sectional ex vivo FLI showed that the locations of signal were well-correlated with visible TBI-derived hemorrhagic lesions (Figure 1B).