Fig. 4: Tumor agnostic, cross species in vivo and ex vivo biodistribution.
From: Tumor agnostic drug delivery with dynamic nanohydrogels
a Sequential whole-body imaging of Pirc rats after intravenous injection of free siRNA (Cy3-labeled) or Texas Red-labeled SANGs (1 mg•kg–1) showing the immediate (90 min), early distribution (24 h), and retention (1 week). b Ex vivo imaging of tumors and major organs. c Quantification of the specificity of SANG delivery and retention to tumors and major organs (liver, kidney, spleen, heart, lungs), normalized against SANG fluorescence signal in heart. Top inset shows the enlarged colorectal tumor biodistribution of SANGs across time. Representative color photograph of a section of the internal lumen of the descending colon of a Pirc rat, indicating diffuse adenocarcinomas (n = 3–6 biological replicates). d Confocal microscopy of SANG distribution in advanced colorectal cancer. Z-projections of confocal images dual-labeling vessels (anti-alpha smooth muscle actin) and SANGs, tumor, liver, and kidney extracted from an identical Pirc rat 72 h after intravenous injection of SANGs (1 mg•kg–1, n = 3 biological replicates). e Ex vivo imaging of lungs from tumor-bearing and control SRG female rats 48 h after SANG dose (1 mg•kg–1). f Quantification of the specificity of SANG delivery and retention to tumors normalized against SANG fluorescence signal in the heart. g Representative ex vivo images showing SANG delivery relative to differential tumor load and h quantification across all lung-tumor bearing SRG rats (n = 8) and control (n = 3). All SANGs fluorescence data were acquired with Texas Red-labeled particles. Barplots present data as mean ± se as well as all data points. (*) indicates statistically significant differences between experimental groups as empirically derived from a hierarchical Bayesian model (stan_glm): 95% highest density intervals do not overlap between groupwise contrasts.
