Rapid Copper-free Click Conjugation to Lipid-Shelled Microbubbles for Ultrasound Molecular Imaging of Murine Bowel Inflammation

Microbubbles are ultrasound contrast agents that can adhere to disease-related vascular biomarkers when functionalized with binding ligands such as antibodies or peptides. The biotin–streptavidin approach has predominantly been used as the microbubble labeling approach in preclinical imaging. However, due to the immunogenicity of avidin in humans, it is not suitable for clinical translation. What would aid clinical translation is a simple and effective microbubble functionalization approach that could be directly translated from animals to humans. We developed a targeted microbubble to P-selectin, a vascular inflammatory marker, labeled using a strain-promoted [3 + 2] azide–alkyne (azide-DBCO) reaction, comparing its ability to detect bowel inflammation to that of P-selectin targeted microbubbles labeled with a traditional biotin–streptavidin approach. Bowel inflammation was chemically induced using 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid (TNBS) in Balb/C mice. Each mouse received both non-targeted and P-selectin targeted microbubbles (either biotin–streptavidin or azide-DBCO). Using the biotin–streptavidin reaction, there was a significant increase in the ultrasound molecular imaging signal in inflamed mice using P-selectin targeted (2.30±0.91 a.u.) compared to isotype control microbubbles (1.14±0.7 a.u.) (p = 0.009). Using the azide-DBCO reaction, there was a similar increase in the ultrasound molecular imaging signal in inflamed mice (2.54±0.56 a.u) compared to the isotype control (0.44±0.25 a.u) (p = 0.009). There were no significant differences between the two labeling approaches between non-targeted and P-selectin targeted microbubbles. Mouse inflammatory phenotypes and expression of P-selectin were validated using histology and immunostaining. We constructed P-selectin targeted microbubbles using an azide-DBCO click reaction, which could detect bowel inflammation in vivo. This reaction generated a similar ultrasound molecular imaging signal to biotin–strepavidin-labeled microbubbles. These data show the potential of click chemistry conjugation (azide-DBCO) as a quick, cost-efficient, and clinically translatable approach for developing targeted microbubbles.