Monitoring of Tumor Response to Au Nanorod-Indocyanine Green Conjugates Mediated Therapy With Fluorescence Imaging and Positron Emission Tomography

Fluorescence imaging can track the expression of fluorescent protein and ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose based positron emission tomography ( [¹⁸F]FDG-PET) can evaluate the changes of [¹⁸F]FDG uptake in tumor cells during the antitumor treatment. In this work, fluorescence imaging and [¹⁸F]FDG-PET were both employed to monitor tumor response to Au nanorod-indocyanine green (AuNR-ICG) conjugates mediated therapy in a subcutaneous MDA-MB-231 mouse xenograft model. Serial fluorescence and [¹⁸F]FDG-PET images following the antitumor treatment were obtained and quantitative analysis revealed significant decreases in fluorescence intensity and metabolic activity in tumors treated with AuNR-ICG conjugates under near infrared laser irradiation. The results suggest that the combination of fluorescence and [¹⁸F]FDG-PET imaging can provide a noninvasive tool to assess the tumor response to antitumor therapy on a molecular scale.