Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticle Pretargeting for PET Imaging Based on a Rapid Bioorthogonal Reaction in a Living Body

摘要

Positron emission tomography (PET) plays an important role as an imaging method because it can provide biological information at the molecular level in a living system with excellent sensitivity. The visualization of in vivo biological processes using PET requires the preparation of specific molecular imaging probes labeled with positron-emitting radioisotopes. In this regard, fluorine-18 (~(18)F) is the most popular positron emitter because its chemical, physiological, and nuclear characteristics are excellent and easy to obtain. On the other hand, the short half-life of ~(18)F (t_(1/2) = 109.8 min) makes it potentially unsuitable for preparing macromolecule-based imaging probes, such as antibodies and bioactive nanoparticles, by labeling with ~(18)F for an in vivo PET study because these nanoparticles normally require a long bloodstream-circulation time in the body to allow specific uptake into the target cells or organs.