Abstract
Ultrasound is frequently utilized in diagnosis of gynecologic malignancies such as ovarian cancer. Because epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is often characterized by overexpression of cancer antigen 125 (CA-125), ultrasound contrast agents able to target this molecular signature could be a promising complementary strategy. In this work, we demonstrate application of CA-125-targeted echogenic lipid and surfactant-stabilized nanobubbles imaged with standard clinical contrast harmonic ultrasound for imaging of CA-125 positive OVCAR-3 tumors in mice. Surface functionalization of the nanobubbles with a CA-125 antibody achieved rapid significantly (P < 0.05) enhanced tumor accumulation, higher peak ultrasound signal intensity and slower wash out rates in OVCAR-3 tumors compared to CA-125 negative SKOV-3 tumors. Targeted nanobubbles also exhibited increased tumor retention and prolonged echogenicity compared to untargeted nanobubbles. Data suggest that ultrasound molecular imaging using CA-125 antibody-conjugated nanobubbles may contribute to improved diagnosis of EOC.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 2159-2168 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology, and Medicine |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 7 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Oct 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Ca-125
- Contrast enhanced ultrasound
- Molecular imaging
- Nanobubbles
- Ovarian cancer
- Targeted contrast agents
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Bioengineering
- Medicine (miscellaneous)
- Molecular Medicine
- Biomedical Engineering
- Materials Science(all)
- Pharmaceutical Science
