Intracranial glioma xenograft model rapidly reestablishes blood–brain barrier integrity for longitudinal imaging of tumor progression using fluorescence molecular tomography and contrast agents

Significance: The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a major obstacle to detecting and treating brain tumors. Overcoming this challenge will facilitate the early and accurate detection of brain lesions and guide surgical resection of tumors. Aim: We generated an orthotopic brain tumor model that simulates the pathophysiology of gliomas at early stages; determine the BBB integrity and breakdown over the time course of tumor progression using generic and cancer-targeted near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent molecular probes. Approach: We developed an intracranial tumor xenograft model that rapidly reestablished BBB integrity and monitored tumor progression by bioluminescence imaging. Sham control mice were injected with phosphate-buffered saline only. Fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) was used to quantify the uptake of tumor-targeted and passive NIR fluorescent imaging agents in orthotopic glioma (U87-GL-GFP PDE7B H217Q cells) tumor model. Cancer-induced and transient (with focused ultrasound, FUS) disruption of BBB integrity was monitored with NIR fluorescent dyes. Results: Stereotactic injection of 50,000 cells into mouse brain allowed rapid reestablishment of BBB integrity within a week, as determined by the inability of both tumor-targeted and generic NIR imaging agents to extravasate into the brain. Tumor-induced BBB disruption was observed 7 weeks after tumor implantation. FUS achieved a similar effect at any time point after reestablishing BBB integrity. While tumor uptake and retention of the passive NIR dye, indocyanine green, was negligible, both actively tumor-targeting agents exhibited selective accumulation in the tumor region. The tumor-targeting molecular probe that clears rapidly from nontumor brain tissue exhibits higher contrast than the analogous vascular-targeting agent and helps delineate tumors from sham control. Conclusions: We highlight the utility of FMT imaging for longitudinal assessment of brain tumors and the interplay between the stages of BBB disruption and molecular probe retention in tumors, with potential application to other neurological diseases.