NaGdF4-Based Magnetic Resonance Nanoprobes for Qualitative Inflammation Imaging in Glioma: Hot or Cold?

Motivation: It is in urgent need to develop an imaging method to reveal the intrinsic ‘cold’ or ‘hot’ status of tumor microenvironment for glioma patients, which would offer guidance for planning therapeutic regimen, and thus maximize the therapeutic efficacy and reduce unnecessary treatment. Goal(s): To visualize the inflammatory status of glioma tumor microenvironment non-invasively using myeloperoxidase responsive NaGdF4-based nanoprobes under MRI. Approach: Different glioma models with different inflammatory status were created and imaged with our nanoprobes under 11.7 T at T1WI (n = 6 each group). Results: MPO-enriched ‘hot’ gliomas showed patchy hypointense T1 signal while MPO-rare ‘cold’ gliomas presented moderate hyperintensity in T1WI. Impact: Depending on the level of MPO in tumor microenvironment, nanoprobes will get self-assembled in various degree, thus altering T1 relaxation time. By using this, it is promising to monitor the tumor inflammatory status for glioma patients thus guide clinical treatment.