Recent
developments in near-infrared (NIR) dyes and imaging modalities
enable tumor fluorescent images in preclinical and clinical settings.
However, NIR dyes have several drawbacks, and therefore, there is
an unmet diagnostic need for NIR dye encapsulation in appropriate
pharmaceutical nanocarriers with targeting abilities for the purpose
of achieving effective diagnosis and image-guided surgeries. Because
integrin receptors are established diagnostic targets, the cyclic
Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) peptides, recognizing the αVβ3 integrin, have been extensively investigated for radiology
and bioimaging of tumors. However, the Lys(Arg)-Thr-Ser [K(R)TS] cyclic
peptides, selective for collagen receptors α1β1/α2β1 integrins, which are
overexpressed in many tumors, were not yet investigated and therefore
used here for tumor bioimaging with a unique α2β1-integrin-targeted nanocarrier, encapsulating the indocyanine
green NIR dye. We synthesized three kinds of peptides: two cyclic
RTS peptides functional only in the cyclic conformation and a linear
peptide lacking the cyclic cysteine constrained RTS loop. We used
them for the preparation of integrin-targeted self-assembled nanocarriers
(ITNCs), referred to as OF5 and OF27, and a nontargeted control nanocarrier,
referred to as OF70. Their selective association was demonstrated
with α2β1 integrin expressing cell
cultures and three-dimensional tumor spheroids and by competition
with a α2β1 selective disintegrin.
Cytotoxicity experiments in vitro demonstrated the
safety of the ITNCs. The targeting potential and the biodistribution
of the ITNCs, applied intravenously in A431 tumor-bearing nude mice,
were evaluated in vivo using NIR bioimaging. Time-dependent
biodistributions indicated that the ITNC OF27 showed higher fluorescent
signals in main tissues, with no cytotoxic effects to major organs,
and presented higher accumulation in tumors. Cumulatively, these results
highlight the potential of the ITNC OF27 as an optical and innovative
pharmaceutical bioimaging system, suitable for integrin α2β1 receptor in vivo tumor
targeting and visualization in the NIR region.