Performance evaluation of image co-registration methods in photoacoustic mesoscopy of the vasculature.

The formation of functional vasculature in solid tumours enables delivery of oxygen and nutrients, and is vital for effective treatment with chemotherapeutic agents. Longitudinal characterisation of vascular networks can be enabled using mesoscopic photoacoustic imaging, but requires accurate image co-registration to precisely assess local changes across disease development or in response to therapy. Co-registration in photoacoustic imaging is challenging due to the complex nature of the generated signal, including the sparsity of data, artefacts related to the illumination/detection geometry, scan-to-scan technical variability, and biological variability, such as transient changes in perfusion.

Characterization of Camphene- and Fenchol-Based Hydrophobic Eutectic Solvents and Their Application in Aldehyde Extraction.

Binary terpenoid-based eutectic systems consisting of the natural substances camphene (CA), fenchol (FE), thymol (TH), menthol (ME), dodecanoic acid (DA), and 1-dodecanol (DO) are synthesized and screened for their Solid-Liquid Equilibrium (SLE) and eutectic compositions. Out of nine eutectic systems, 13 solvent compositions at eutectic points and next to them, in addition to the reference solvent, TH:ME, are synthesized and applied for the solvent extraction of the aromatic aldehydes vanillin (VAN), syringaldehyde (SYR), and -hydroxybenzaldehyde (HYD) from an acidic aqueous model solution. The extraction efficiency is determined from aldehyde concentrations measured by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), taking into consideration mutual solubility measured by Karl Fischer titration (KF) and a Total Organic Carbon-analysis (TOC).

The activity of therapeutic molecular cluster Ag5 is dependent on oxygen level and HIF-1 mediated signalling.

Regions of hypoxia occur in most solid tumours and are known to significantly impact therapy response and patient prognosis. Ag5 is a recently reported silver molecular cluster which inhibits both glutathione and thioredoxin signalling therefore limiting cellular antioxidant capacity. Ag5 treatment significantly reduces cell viability in a range of cancer cell lines with little to no impact on non-transformed cells.

Fluorogenic platinum(IV) complexes as potential predictors for the design of hypoxia-activated platinum(IV) prodrugs.

Hypoxia (low-oxygen) is one of the most common characteristics of solid tumours. Exploiting tumour hypoxia to reductively activate Pt(IV) prodrugs has the potential to deliver toxic Pt(II) selectively and thus overcome the systemic toxicity issues of traditional Pt(II) therapies. However, our current understanding of the behaviour of Pt(IV) prodrugs in hypoxia is limited.

Tutorial on phantoms for photoacoustic imaging applications.

Significance: Photoacoustic imaging (PAI) is an emerging technology that holds high promise in a wide range of clinical applications, but standardized methods for system testing are lacking, impeding objective device performance evaluation, calibration, and inter-device comparisons. To address this shortfall, this tutorial offers readers structured guidance in developing tissue-mimicking phantoms for photoacoustic applications with potential extensions to certain acoustic and optical imaging applications.

Aim: The tutorial review aims to summarize recommendations on phantom development for PAI applications to harmonize efforts in standardization and system calibration in the field.