近日，南方医科大学的聂立铭及其研究团队取得一项新进展。经过不懈努力，他们利用动态合成扫描光声追踪技术，实时监测外源性探针在体内的肝脏和肾脏清除途径。相关研究成果已于2024年10月31日在国际知名学术期刊《光：科学与应用》上发表。

该研究团队利用非电离光声断层成像技术进行深层组织成像，开发出一种时空分辨的清除途径追踪（SRCPT）方法，该方法为观察关键器官内的药物清除动态提供了前所未有的新视角。SRCPT解决了激光能量衰减等难题，实现了药物清除途径的动态可视化及关键参数的提取。研究人员采用一种新颖的基于频率分量选择的合成孔径聚焦技术（FCS-SAFT），并结合无呼吸伪影的加权因子，以提高三维成像的分辨率。

受此启发，他们研究了临床药物米托蒽醌的清除途径，发现肝功能受损时其肝脏清除率降低。此外，免疫球蛋白G的清除分析显示，不同肾损伤程度的小鼠之间存在显著差异。研究人员使用双标记探针[⁶⁸Ga]DFO-IRDye800CW验证了该方法的准确性，结果显示SRCPT与PET之间存在强烈的正相关关系。研究人员相信，这种强大的SRCPT技术有望精确绘制药物清除途径图，并增强肝脏和肾脏相关疾病的诊断与治疗能力。

据悉，精准医学的进步要求人们深入了解药物清除途径，尤其是肝脏和肾脏等器官中的清除途径。传统的技术，如PET/CT，存在辐射风险，而光学成像则在保持深层穿透力和高分辨率方面面临挑战。此外，针对不同症状的药物候选者很少进行纵向研究。

附：英文原文

Title: Dynamic synthetic-scanning photoacoustic tracking monitors hepatic and renal clearance pathway of exogeneous probes in vivo

Author: Lv, Jing, Lan, Hengrong, Qin, Aoji, Sun, Tong, Shao, Dan, Gao, Fei, Yao, Junjie, Avanaki, Kamran, Nie, Liming

Issue&Volume: 2024-10-31

Abstract: Advancements in precision medicine necessitate understanding drug clearance pathways, especially in organs like the liver and kidneys. Traditional techniques such as PET/CT pose radiation hazards, whereas optical imaging poses challenges in maintaining both depth penetration and high resolution. Moreover, very few longitudinal studies have been performed for drug candidates for different symptoms. Leveraging non-ionizing photoacoustic tomography for deep tissue imaging, we developed a spatiotemporally resolved clearance pathway tracking (SRCPT) method, providing unprecedented insights into drug clearance dynamics within vital organs. SRCPT addresses challenges like laser fluence attenuation, enabling dynamic visualization of drug clearance pathways and essential parameter extraction. We employed a novel frequency component selection based synthetic aperture focusing technique (FCS-SAFT) with respiratory-artifacts-free weighting factors to enhance three-dimensional imaging resolutions. Inspired by this, we investigated the clearance pathway of a clinical drug, mitoxantrone, revealing reduced liver clearance when hepatic function is impaired. Furthermore, immunoglobulin G clearance analysis revealed significant differences among mice with varying renal injury degrees. The accuracy of our method was validated using a double-labeled probe [⁶⁸Ga]DFO-IRDye800CW, showing a strong positive correlation between SRCPT and PET. We believe that this powerful SRCPT promises precise mapping of drug clearance pathways and enhances diagnosis and treatment of liver and kidney-related diseases.

DOI: 10.1038/s41377-024-01644-6

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-024-01644-6