The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging defines molecular imaging as '… the visualization, characterization, and measurement of biological processes at the molecular and cellular levels in humans and other living systems' [2].
By targeting underlying molecular processes, molecular imaging modalities can image biologic processes specific to cancer and this may aid in cancer detection and characterization and complement traditional anatomic imaging methods.
Molecular imaging is a process in which a labeled molecule, called a tracer, can be used as a sensor/marker to indicate the activity level of a specific gene, enzyme, biochemical pathway, or other cellular process at the molecular level.
Molecular imaging of dynamic processes such as tissue regeneration provides an opportunity not only to characterize the biologic process at the cellular and molecular level but also to measure the impact of therapeutic interventions [2 4].
As a part of research in the field of molecular imaging of angiogenic processes, we synthesized several highly potent VEGFR-2/PDGFR dual inhibitors as potential PET biomarkers.
In view of current antiangiogenic treatment strategies molecular imaging of angiogenic processes is very much in focus.
Moreover, an increasing number of molecular-targeted radiotracers is now being introduced which may extend the current possibilities for molecular imaging of biologic processes.
Besides the technological progress, new knowledge in tissue biology has an impact on the evolution of imaging from simply viewing morphology to detecting function, and on the development of new molecular imaging of biological processes.
RMCE also permits rapid introduction of various reporter constructs for non-invasive and longitudinal monitoring of tumor volume, for tumor lineage tracing and for molecular imaging of cellular processes such as metabolic activity, proliferation, apoptosis, and the activity of specific signaling pathways.
The biodistribution of polymersomes was evaluated by quantifying the NIR fluorescence intensity of the organ and tumor images processed with Kodak molecular imaging software.
