Activities

In the field of molecular imaging, photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is emerging as an innovative and attractive imaging modality because it merges the advantages of ultrasound with the intrinsic optical absorption properties of molecules naturally occurring in tissues or exogenously administered. Herein at Molecular Imaging Center, PAI is used for two main purposes: i) the visualization and quantification of vascular volume and oxygen saturation in cancerous regions and ii) the characterization of innovative supramolecular PAI contrast agents for theranostic applications.

As far as the first application, our group is investigating changes occurring in the vascular network (vascular volume and hypoxia) during tumor growth in breast and prostate cancer models. The aim is to correlate these data with tumor aggressiveness, and to develop innovative anti-cancer therapies and strategies to monitor their effects in vivo. PAI has played an important role in validating innovative MRI tools based on the incorporation of Gd-complexes inside red blood cells, that have been recently developed in our center, with the aim of assessing tumor vascular volume and hypoxia (Ferrauto G. et al. Biomaterials, 2015, 58, 82 and Di Gregorio E, Ferrauto G. et al. ACS Nano, 2015, 9, 8239). 

As far as the second application, PAI is used for the development of innovative theranostic PAI contrast agents. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) loaded with Indocynine Green (ICG)-PAI reporter and Mitoxantrone drug have been developed. They have been tested as untargeted PAI contrast agents for tumor detection and characterization. An innovative approach to quantify the in vivo release of the Mitoxantrone at the target site has been developed (Ferrauto G. et al. Nanoscale, 2019, 11, 18031 and Ferrauto G. et al. Nanoscale, 2017, 9, 99).

Group

• Dr. Giuseppe Ferrauto, Researcher, PI

• Dr. Enza Di Gregorio, post-doc fellow