An Adaptable Nanoprobe Integrated with Quantitative T₁-Mapping MRI for Accurate Differential Diagnosis of Multidrug-Resistant Lung Cancer

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is one of the major factors causing failure of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) chemotherapy. Real-time and accurate differentiation between drug-resistant and sensitive NSCLC is of primary importance for guiding the subsequent treatments and improving the therapeutic outcome. However, there is no effective method to provide such an accurate differentiation. This study creates an innovative strategy of integrating H2O2-responsive nanoprobes with the quantitative T-1-mapping magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique to achieve an accurate differential diagnosis between drug-resistant and sensitive NSCLC in light of differences in H2O2 content in the tumor microenvironment (TME). The result demonstrates that the synthesized MIL-53(Fe)@MnO2 nanocomposites possess an excellent capability of shortening the cancer longitudinal relaxation time (T-1) when meeting H2O2 in TME. T-1-mapping MRI could sensitively detect this T-1 variation (about 2.6-fold that of T1-weighted imaging (T1WI)) to accurately differentiate the H2O2 content between drug-resistant and sensitive NSCLC. In addition, the quantitative data provided by the T-1-mapping MRI dedicates correct comparison across imaging tests and is more reliable than T1WI, thus giving it a chance for precise assessment of the anti-cancer effect. This innovative strategy of merging TME adaptable nanoprobes with the quantitative MRI technique provides a new approach for the precise diagnosis of multidrug-resistant NSCLC.