Photoacoustic image-guided interventions

Abstract

Photoacoustic imaging has demonstrated its potential for diagnosis over the last few decades. In recent years, its unique imaging capabilities, such as detecting structural, functional and molecular information in deep regions with optical contrast and ultrasound resolution, have opened up many opportunities for photoacoustic imaging to be used during image-guided interventions. Numerous studies have investigated the capability of photoacoustic imaging to guide various interventions such as drug delivery, therapies, surgeries, and biopsies. These studies have demonstrated that photoacoustic imaging can guide these interventions effectively and non-invasively in real-time. In this minireview, we will elucidate the potential of photoacoustic imaging in guiding active and passive drug deliveries, photothermal therapy, and other surgeries and therapies using endogenous and exogenous contrast agents including organic, inorganic, and hybrid nanoparticles, as well as needle-based biopsy procedures. The advantages of photoacoustic imaging in guided interventions will be discussed. It will, therefore, show that photoacoustic imaging has great potential in real-time interventions due to its advantages over current imaging modalities like computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasound imaging.

Impact statement: Photoacoustic imaging is an emerging modality for use in image-guided interventional procedures. This imaging technology has a unique ability to offer real-time, non-invasive, cost-effective, and radiation-free guidance in a real-world operating environment. This is substantiated in this article which sums up the current state and underlines promising results of research using photoacoustic imaging in guiding drug delivery, therapy, surgery, and biopsy. Hence, this minireview facilitates future research and real-world application of photoacoustic image-guided interventions.

Keywords: Photoacoustic imaging; biopsy; drug delivery; image-guided intervention; noninvasive therapy; surgery.

Figure 1.

Overall structure of this review article with the applications discussed and PAI’s role in each of the applications. (A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

Figure 2.

PAI-guided drug delivery. (a) PAI of three replicates of plastic tubing holding blood with increasing concentrations of heparin along with same concentration of methylene blue. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from Wang J, Chen F, Arconada-Alvarez SJ, Hartanto J, Yap LP, Park R, Wang F, Vorobyova I, Dagliyan G, Conti PS, Jokerst JV, A nanoscale tool for photoacoustic-based measurements of clotting time and therapeutic drug monitoring of heparin. Nano Lett 2016;16:6265–71. Copyright © 2016 American Chemical Society. (b) Photoacoustic tomography of injection boundary of lithium-based sensors into mice. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from Cash KJ, Li C, Xia J, Wang LV, and Clark HA, Optical Drug Monitoring: Photoacoustic Imaging of Nanosensors to Monitor Therapeutic Lithium in Vivo. ACS Nano 2015;9:1692–98. Copyright © 2015 American Chemical Society. (A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

Figure 3.

PAI obtained from tumor in nude mice at 0, 6, 12, and 24-h post-injection of the micelle-based nanoparticles. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from Du L, Qin H, Ma T, Zhang T, and Xing D, In vivo imaging-guided photothermal/photoacoustic synergistic therapy with biorthogonal metabolic glycoengineering-activated tumor targeting nanoparticles. ACS Nano 2017;11(9):8930–43. Copyright © 2017 American Chemical Society. (A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)

Figure 4.

Ratiometric PAI of viable transplanted stem cells in mice acquired at 795 nm and 920 nm on 0, 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10th day of stem cell therapy. Reprinted (adapted) with permission from Dhada KS, Hernandez DS, and Suggs LJ, In vivo photoacoustic tracking of mesenchymal stem cell viability. ACS Nano 2019;13:7791–7799. Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society. (A color version of this figure is available in the online journal.)