Trimodal color-fluorescence-polarization endoscopy aided by a tumor selective molecular probe accurately detects flat lesions in colitis-associated cancer

Abstract

Abstract. Colitis-associated cancer (CAC) arises from premalignant flat lesions of the colon, which are difficult to detect with current endoscopic screening approaches. We have developed a complementary fluorescence and polarization reporting strategy that combines the unique biochemical and physical properties of dysplasia and cancer for real-time detection of these lesions. Using azoxymethane-dextran sodium sulfate (AOM-DSS) treated mice, which recapitulates human CAC and dysplasia, we show that an octapeptide labeled with a near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent dye selectively identified all precancerous and cancerous lesions. A new thermoresponsive sol-gel formulation allowed topical application of the molecular probe during endoscopy. This method yielded high contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) between adenomatous tumors (20.6 AE 1.65) and flat lesions (12.1 AE 1.03) and surrounding uninvolved colon tissue versus CNR of inflamed tissues (1.62 AE 0.41). Incorporation of nanowire-filtered polarization imaging into NIR fluorescence endoscopy shows a high depolarization contrast in both adenomatous tumors and flat lesions in CAC, reflecting compromised structural integrity of these tissues. Together, the real-time polarization imaging provides real-time validation of suspicious colon tissue highlighted by molecular fluorescence endoscopy.

Kinetics of indocyanine green: Optimizing tumor to normal tissue fluorescence in image‐guided oral cancer surgery applications

“…Meanwhile, variability of tumor site, tumor stage should be considered in further studies. Besides, multiple methods, including Raman Spectroscopy and polarization imaging, could be used in combination with ICG NIF imaging to improve the accuracy and sensitivity of identifying tumors in future.…”

Full-Stokes Imaging Polarimetry Using Dielectric Metasurfaces

“…While spectral and hyperspectral imaging techniques provide information about the molecular and material composition of a scene [1,2], polarimetric imaging contains information about the shape and texture of reflecting surfaces, the orientation of light emitters, or the optical activity of various materials [3,4]. This additional information has led to many applications for imaging polarimetry ranging from astronomy and remote sensing to marine biology and medicine [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11].Therefore, several methods have been developed over the past decades to enable mapping of the polarization state over an extended scene [11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].Generally, polarimetric imaging techniques can be categorized into three groups: division of amplitude, division of aperture, and division of focal plane [3]. All of these techniques are based on measuring the intensity in different polarization bases and using them to estimate the full Stokes vector or a part of it.…”

“…While spectral and hyperspectral imaging techniques provide information about the molecular and material composition of a scene [1,2], polarimetric imaging contains information about the shape and texture of reflecting surfaces, the orientation of light emitters, or the optical activity of various materials [3,4]. This additional information has led to many applications for imaging polarimetry ranging from astronomy and remote sensing to marine biology and medicine [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

Topical application of Chlorin e6-PVP (Ce6-PVP) for improved endoscopic detection of neoplastic lesions in a murine colitis-associated cancer model

“…Fewer studies exist on targeted approaches focusing on inflammatory carcinogenesis, e.g. in the AOM/DSS model, but generally face the same difficulties 14 . An approach using a topically applied fluorophore, hexaminolevulinate (HAL), a derivate of 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA), which specifically accumulates in dysplastic lesions, has yielded promising results in sporadic carcinomas 15 but data regarding inflammatory carcinogenesis are currently lacking.…”