Background Novel theranostic options for high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer are urgently needed. This requires a thorough evaluation of experimental approaches in animal models best possibly reflecting human disease before entering clinical studies. Although several bladder cancer xenograft models were used in the literature, the establishment of an orthotopic bladder cancer model in mice remains challenging. Methods Luciferase-transduced UM-UC-3LUCK1 bladder cancer cells were instilled transurethrally via 24G permanent venous catheters into athymic NMRI and BALB/c nude mice as well as into SCID-beige mice. Besides the mouse strain, the pretreatment of the bladder wall (trypsin or poly-L-lysine), tumor cell count (0.5 × 106–5.0 × 106) and tumor cell dwell time in the murine bladder (30 min – 2 h) were varied. Tumors were morphologically and functionally visualized using bioluminescence imaging (BLI), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET). Results Immunodeficiency of the mouse strains was the most important factor influencing cancer cell engraftment, whereas modifying cell count and instillation time allowed fine-tuning of the BLI signal start and duration – both representing the possible treatment period for the evaluation of new therapeutics. Best orthotopic tumor growth was achieved by transurethral instillation of 1.0 × 106 UM-UC-3LUCK1 bladder cancer cells into SCID-beige mice for 2 h after bladder pretreatment with poly-L-lysine. A pilot PET experiment using 68Ga-cetuximab as transurethrally administered radiotracer revealed functional expression of epidermal growth factor receptor as representative molecular characteristic of engrafted cancer cells in the bladder. Conclusions With the optimized protocol in SCID-beige mice an applicable and reliable model of high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer for the development of novel theranostic approaches was established.

Le travail présenté dans ce mémoire avait pour but de synthétiser de nouvelles molécules dont l’architecture donne accès à des complexes hétérobimétalliques aux propriétés intéressantes pour l’imagerie médicale multimodale. Dans ce manuscrit plusieurs points principaux ont donc été abordés. La première partie de se travail porte sur la synthèse et la caractérisation des ligands. Nous décrivons dans ce manuscrit la synthèse de cinq nouveaux ligands hétérobismacrocycliques basés sur l’association d’une porphyrine et d’un ou de plusieurs dérivés du cyclène. Ces ligands présentent la particularité d’être solubles en milieux aqueux. Au cours des synthèses, nous avons ciblé les améliorations à apporter à notre travail et élaboré une nouvelle voie de synthèse qui permet d’accéder, en seulement six étapes, à un ligand composé d’une porphyrine, d’un dérivé du cyclène et d’une fonction amine libre qui permettra de greffer le ligand sur un vecteur biologique. La seconde partie de ce manuscrit porte sur l’incorporation de centres métalliques dans les ligands synthétisés ainsi que l’étude de leur efficacité en tant qu’agent de contraste de l’IRM. Nous décrivons la synthèse de cinq complexes de gadolinium (III) et de trois complexes hétérobimétalliques associant du gadolinium (III) et du cuivre (II). En effet, le gadolinium est actuellement utilisé dans les agents de contraste de l’IRM et un des isotopes du cuivre, le cuivre-64, est utilisé en imagerie PET. Nous décrivons un protocole de mesure de la relaxivité des complexes à haut et à bas champs magnétiques. Cinq complexes présentent des valeurs de relaxivité quatre fois supérieures à celles des agents de contraste commerciaux de l’IRM. Le dernier chapitre de ce travail porte sur la synthèse, la caractérisation et les études photophysiques de quatre antennes moléculaires associant des porphyrines et des BODIPY. Nous avons développé deux voies de synthèses originales. La première est basée sur la création de liaisons bore-oxygène en substituant les atomes de fluor portés par l’atome de bore des BODIPY. L’autre voie de synthèse utilise la réaction de cycloaddition dipolaire d’Huisgen. Nous décrivons des études photophysiques qui mettent en évidence des transferts d’énergie du BODIPY vers la porphyrine Nous avons mis en évidence le premier exemple de transfert d’énergie d’une porphyrine vers un BODIPY grâce à un système “blue” BODIPY étendu couplé à des porphyrines par une réaction de chimie “click”. / The goal of my PhD thesis was to synthesize new molecules, which give access to heterobimetallic complexes with interesting properties for multimodal imaging. In this manuscript, several main points have been studied. The first part of this work concerns the synthesis and characterization of ligands. We describe here the synthesis of five new ligands based on the association of one porphyrin and one or several cyclen derivatives. Those ligands are water-soluble. During the synthesis, we have targeted improvements to our work and developed a new synthetic pathway, which allowed us to obtain one ligand incorporating a porphyrin, a cyclen derivative and a free amine function. This function could be activated to further graft the ligand onto a biological vector. The second part of this manuscript describes the chelation of metallic centers into the ligands and the study of their efficiency as MRI contrast agents. We describe the synthesis of five gadolinium (III) complexes and three heterobimetallic complexes associating gadolinium (III) with copper (II). Indeed, gadolinium is currently used in contrast agents for MRI and the radioactive isotope of copper, copper-64 is used in PET imaging. We describe also a procedure to measure the relaxivity of the gadolinium complexes at low and high magnetic fields. Five complexes exhibit relaxivity values five times larger than commercially available MRI contrast agents. The last part of this work is related to the synthesis, characterization and photophysical studies of four molecular antennas incorporating porphyrins and BODIPY. We describe two original synthetic pathways. The first one is based on the formation of boron-oxygen bonds by substitution of the fluorine atoms bound to BODIPY boron atom. The second synthetic pathway involves the Huisgen’s dipolar cycloaddition. We describe photophysical data and give evidences of the energy transfer from BODIPY to porphyrin. We present also the first example of energy transfer from porphyrin to BODIPY in the system obtained by “click” chemistry involving an extended “blue” BODIPY.

Les possibilités offertes par les applications en médecine des nanoparticules sont l’un des facteurs essentiels des progrès médicaux attendus pour ce XXIème siècle. Ainsi, le domaine de l’imagerie médicale est aussi touché par cette évolution technologique. Ce présent travail a consisté à élaborer des sondes théranostiques à base de nanoparticules d’oxydes de fer (SPIO) et de nanotubes de titanate (TiONts) pour l’imagerie multimodale (magnétique/nucléaire ou magnétique/optique) et possédant aussi un effet thérapeutique (hyperthermie/PDT ou radiosensibilisation/PDT).Les nanotubes de titanate de cette étude, d’une longueur moyenne d’environ 150 nm, ont été obtenus par synthèse hydrothermale selon la méthode de Kasuga. Ces nanotubes présentent un diamètre extérieur de l’ordre de 10 nm et une cavité interne de 4 nm. Les nanoparticules d’oxydes de fer ont quant à elles été synthétisées par méthode de co-précipitation "Massart". Ces nanoparticules d’oxydes de fer de structure spinelle possèdent des cristallites de 9 nm de diamètre et présentent un comportement superparamagnétique mis en évidence par des mesures FC/ZFC. Pour préparer ces nanoparticules à recevoir des molécules d’intérêt biologique, deux ligands possédant des fonctions organiques plus réactives (APTES : NH2 et PHA : COOH) ont été greffés à la surface de ces deux types de nanoparticules. La présence de l'un ou l'autre a été mise en évidence par différentes techniques d’analyses (XPS, IR, zêtamétrie). La quantité de molécules greffées a été déterminé par ATG, elle est dans tous les cas d’environ 5 molécules/nm2. Dans un premier temps, les nanotubes de titanate ont été fonctionnalisés par un agent macrocyclique (0,2 DOTA/nm2). Après radiomarquage à l’indium 111, les TiONts – DOTA[In] ont été injectés dans des souris Swiss mâle nude pour connaître leur biodistribution en imagerie SPECT/CT. Les images obtenues et le comptage de la radioactivité dans chaque organe ont montré qu’au bout d’une heure, les nanotubes se situent dans les poumons et dans l’urine. Ensuite, les nanotubes sont progressivement éliminés pour n’être plus présents que dans les urines à 24 heures. Ces mêmes agents chélatants ont été greffés à la surface des SPIO pour la création de sondes multimodales IRM/SPECT ou IRM/TEP. En parallèle de cette étude, un fluorophore (phtalocyanine de zinc, ZnPc) a été greffé à la surface des nanoparticules. Le nanohybride SPIO – Pc synthétisé possède les propriétés requises pour être une sonde utilisable en imagerie bimodale IRM/IO grâce à sa longueur d’émission vers 670 nm et sa relaxivité de l’ordre de 70 L.mmolFe3O4-1.s-1. De plus, les nanohybrides ont été fonctionnalisés par du PEG pour les rendre furtifs, biocompatibles et stables. La toxicité de certains de ces nanohybrides a été évaluée avec le modèle in vivo zebrafish. Les nanohybrides étudiés n’ont pas présenté de toxicité, n’ont pas perturbé l’éclosion et n’ont pas provoqué de malformations sur les larves des zebrafish. / The new implementations of nanoparticles in the medical field are one of the essential factors of the medical progress expected at the beginning of this XXIst century. Thus, the domain of the medical imaging is also affected by this technological evolution. This work consisted in developing theranostic probes with iron oxides nanoparticles (SPIO) and titanate nanotubes (TiONts) for multimodal imaging (magnetic/nuclear or magnetic/optical) and also possessing a therapeutic effect (hyperthermia/PDT or radiosensitization/PDT).The titanate nanotubes of this study have an average length of about 150 nm and were obtained by Kasuga's hydrothermal synthesis. These nanotubes present an outside diameter of about 10 nm and an intern cavity of 4 nm. On the other hand, iron oxides nanoparticles were synthesized by soft chemistry ("Massart" method). These spinel-like iron oxides nanoparticles have a crystallite size of 9 nm in diameter and exhibit a superparamagnetic behavior which was highlighted by FC / ZFC measurements.To get these nanoparticles ready to receive molecules of biological interest, two linkers of more reactive organic functions (APTES: NH2 or PHA: COOH) were grafted to the surface of these two types of nanoparticles. Their presence was shown by different techniques (XPS, IR, UV-vis). The amount of grafted linkers was determined by TGA and in all cases this amount is close to 5 molecules/nm2. First, titanate nanotubes were coated by a macrocyclic chelating agent (0.2 DOTA/nm2). After radiolabelling with indium 111, the TiONts – DOTA[In] nanohybrids were injected in Swiss nude mice and observed by SPECT/CT imaging to characterize their biodistribution. The SPECT/CT images and the radioactivity measured in each organ showed that after one hour, nanotubes are located in lungs and in urine. Then, the nanotubes are gradually eliminated and are only found in urines after 24 hours. The same macrocyclic agent was grafted to the SPIO’s surface for the creation of multimodal probes MRI/SPECT or MRI/PET. Alongside this study, a fluorophore (Zinc phthalocyanine) was also grafted to the surface of nanoparticles. The synthesized SPIO – Pc nanohybrid has the required properties of bimodal imaging MRI/OI probe thanks to his emission wavelength around 670 nm and its relaxivity is about 70 L.mmolFe3O4-1.s-1. Furthermore, nanohybrids were coated by PEG to make them stealth, biocompatible and stable.In this study, the toxicity of most nanohybrids was evaluated by the in vivo zebrafish model. The studied nanohybrids did not present any toxicity, hatching disruption or malformation on zebrafish larvae.

Background Novel theranostic options for high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer are urgently needed. This requires a thorough evaluation of experimental approaches in animal models best possibly reflecting human disease before entering clinical studies. Although several bladder cancer xenograft models were used in the literature, the establishment of an orthotopic bladder cancer model in mice remains challenging. Methods Luciferase-transduced UM-UC-3LUCK1 bladder cancer cells were instilled transurethrally via 24G permanent venous catheters into athymic NMRI and BALB/c nude mice as well as into SCID-beige mice. Besides the mouse strain, the pretreatment of the bladder wall (trypsin or poly-L-lysine), tumor cell count (0.5 × 106–5.0 × 106) and tumor cell dwell time in the murine bladder (30 min – 2 h) were varied. Tumors were morphologically and functionally visualized using bioluminescence imaging (BLI), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET). Results Immunodeficiency of the mouse strains was the most important factor influencing cancer cell engraftment, whereas modifying cell count and instillation time allowed fine-tuning of the BLI signal start and duration – both representing the possible treatment period for the evaluation of new therapeutics. Best orthotopic tumor growth was achieved by transurethral instillation of 1.0 × 106 UM-UC-3LUCK1 bladder cancer cells into SCID-beige mice for 2 h after bladder pretreatment with poly-L-lysine. A pilot PET experiment using 68Ga-cetuximab as transurethrally administered radiotracer revealed functional expression of epidermal growth factor receptor as representative molecular characteristic of engrafted cancer cells in the bladder. Conclusions With the optimized protocol in SCID-beige mice an applicable and reliable model of high-risk non-muscle invasive bladder cancer for the development of novel theranostic approaches was established.

In recent years, development of various imaging, recording and stimulation tools are rapidly advancing our knowledge of the human anatomy and its underlying interconnections. As a truly non-invasive tool, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), is creating new opportunities to understand large scale biological processes with a fine detail. Furthermore, novel materials and microfabrication techniques are allowing researchers to develop tools that record bio-signal or modulate complex physiology with high temporal precision. However, these tools, when used individually can elucidate only a partial view of the human body and the brain. There is a growing need in both the research and clinical community to find ways to perform these modalities together and visualize biological systems across a vast range of spatiotemporal scale. However, severe methodological challenges act as bottlenecks for any such multimodal integration.<br><div><br></div><div>To address this critical need, I have designed an MRI-safe platform for high-fidelity bio-signal recording and electrical stimulation during concurrent MRI imaging. Central to this system are novel miniaturized microelectronic devices, that operate wirelessly in synchrony with MRI scans. The system leverages surplus functionalities of a conventional scanner to integrate with the imaging system and provide a simple and inexpensive solution towards multimodal imaging. This work also describes a systematic approach for development and evaluation of this plug-and-play system through in-vivo experiments in animal models. The clinical relevance of the multimodal imaging platform was further showcased through a study on the mechanism of SUDEP (Sudden death in epilepsy), a terminal complication associated with epilepsy. With future refinements, I expect this platform will provide affordable, accessible, and reliable solutions for multimodal imaging in animals and humans, creating unique opportunities for basic scientific research and clinical diagnosis.<br></div>