Enzyme-mediated in situ self-assembly promotes in vivo bioorthogonal reaction for pretargeted multimodality imaging.

Abstract

Pretargeted imaging has emerged as a promising approach to advance nuclear imaging of malignant tumors, however, the application of pretargeted strategy for multimodality imaging of enzyme activity in vivo is challenging. Herein, we combine the enzyme-mediated fluorogenic reaction and in situ self-assembly with the inverse electron demand Diels-Alder (IEDDA) reaction to develop an activatable pretargeted strategy for multimodality imaging. The trans -cyclooctene (TCO) bearing small-molecule probe, P-FFGd-TCO , can be activated by alkaline phosphatase and in situ self-assembles into nanoaggregates ( FMNPs-TCO ) retained on the membranes, permitting to (1) amplify near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence (FL) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signals, and (2) enrich TCOs to promote IEDDA ligation. The Gallium-68 ( 68 Ga) labeled tetrazine can readily conjugate the tumor-retained FMNPs-TCO to enhance radioactivity uptake in tumors. Hence, strong NIR FL, MRI and positron emission tomography (PET) signals are concomitantly achieved, allowing for pretargeted multimodality imaging of ALP activity in HeLa tumor-bearing mice.