Cherenkov luminescence imaging is a fast and relevant preclinical tool to assess tumour hypoxia in vivo

PurposeMolecular imaging techniques visualise biomarkers for both drug development and personalised medicine. In this field, Cherenkov luminescence imaging (CLI) seems to be very attractive by allowing imaging with clinical PET radiotracers with high-throughput capabilities. In this context, we developed a fast CLI method to detect tumour hypoxia with F-18-fluoromisonidazole (FMISO) for drug development purposes.MethodsColon cancer model was induced in mice by subcutaneous injection of 1x10(6) CT-26 cells. FMISO was injected, and simultaneous PET-blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD)-MRI followed by CLI were performed along with immunohistochemistry staining with pimonidazole.ResultsThere was a significant correlation between FMISO PET and CLI tumour uptakes, consistent with the BOLD-MRI mapping. Tumour-to-background ratio was significantly higher for CLI compared with PET and MRI. Immunohistochemistry confirmed tumour hypoxia. The imaging workflow with CLI was about eight times faster than the PET-MRI procedure.ConclusionCLI is a fast and relevant tool to assess tumour hypoxia. This approach could be particularly interesting for hypoxia-targeting drug development.