Dr. Alexandros Marios Sofias, RWTH Aachen University, Germany

This webinar describes a multiscale and multimodal optical imaging approach for evaluating core-crosslinked polymeric micelles (CCPM) designed for cancer treatment. The biodistribution and target site accumulation of CCPM were macroscopically and microscopically investigated. To this end, fluorophore-labeled CCPM were intravenously injected in mice bearing 4T1 triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumors, and their localization at the whole-body, tissue and cellular level was analyzed using multimodal and multiscale optical imaging. At the organism level, a non-invasive 3D micro-computed tomography-fluorescence tomography (μCT-FLT) and 2D fluorescence reflectance imaging (FRI) was performed. At the tissue and cellular level, extensive immunohistochemistry, focusing primarily on cancer, endothelial and phagocytic immune cells was performed.

Took place: November, 2020