Thyroid Cancer Detection by Ultrasound Molecular Imaging with SHP2-Targeted Perfluorocarbon Nanoparticles

Contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging has been widely used in the ultrasound diagnosis of a variety of tumours with high diagnostic accuracy, especially in patients with hepatic carcinoma, while its application is rarely reported in thyroid cancer.The currently used ultrasound contrast agents, microbubbles, cannot be targeted to molecular markers expressed in tumour cells due to their big size, leading to a big challenge for ultrasound molecular imaging. Phase-changeable perfuorocarbon nanoparticles may resolve the penetrability limitation of microbubbles and serve as a promising probe for ultrasound molecular imaging. Methods. 65 thyroid tumour samples and 40 normal samples adjacent to thyroid cancers were determined for SHP2 expression by IHC. SHP2-targeted PLGA nanoparticles (NPs-SHP2) encapsulating perfuoropentane (PFP) were prepared with PLGA-PEG as a shell material, and their specifc target-binding ability was assessed in vitro and in vivo, and the eftect on the enhancement of ultrasonic imaging induced by LIFU was studied in vivo. Results. In the present study, we verifed that tumour overexpression of SHP2 and other protein tyrosine phosphatases regulated several cellular processes and contributed to tumorigenesis, which could be introduced to ultrasound molecular imaging for diferentiating normal from malignant thyroid diagnostic nodes. The IHC test showed remarkably high expression of SHP2 in human thyroid carcinoma specimens. In thyroid tumour xenografs in mice, the imaging signal was signifcantly enhanced by SHP2-targeted nanoparticles after LIFU induction. Conclusion. This study provides a basis for preclinical exploration of ultrasound molecular imaging with NPs-SHP2 for clinical thyroid nodule detection to enhance diagnostic accuracy.