Copper-64 labeled liposomes for imaging bone marrow

Introduction: Bone marrow is the soft tissue compartment inside the bones made up of hematopoietic cells, adipocytes, stromal cells, phagocytic cells, stem cells, and sinusoids. While [¹⁸F]-FLT has been utilized to image proliferative marrow, to date, there are no reports of particle based positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agents for imaging bone marrow. We have developed copper-64 labeled liposomal formulation that selectively targets bone marrow and therefore serves as an efficient PET probe for imaging bone marrow. Methods: Optimized liposomal formulations were prepared with succinyl PE, DSPC, cholesterol, and mPEG-DSPE (69:39:1:10:0.1) with diameters of 90 and 140 nm, and were doped with DOTA-Bn-DSPE for stable ⁶⁴Cu incorporation into liposomes. Results: PET imaging and biodistribution studies with ⁶⁴Cu-labeled liposomes indicate that accumulation in bone marrow was as high as 15.18 ± 3.69%ID/g for 90 nm liposomes and 7.01 ± 0.92%ID/g for 140 nm liposomes at 24 h post-administration. In vivo biodistribution studies in tumor-bearing mice indicate that the uptake of 90 nm particles is approximately 0.89 ± 0.48%ID/g in tumor and 14.22 ± 8.07%ID/g in bone marrow, but respective values for Doxil® like liposomes are 0.83 ± 0.49%ID/g and 2.23 ± 1.00%ID/g. Conclusion: Our results indicate that our novel PET labeled liposomes target bone marrow with very high efficiency and therefore can function as efficient bone marrow imaging agents.