Quantitative X-ray fluorescence imaging of gold nanoparticles using joint L1 and total variation regularized reconstruction

Efficient FMT reconstruction based on L1-αL2 regularization via half-quadratic splitting and a two-probe separation light source strategy

Fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) can achieve noninvasive, high-contrast, high-sensitivity three-dimensional imaging in vivo by relying on a variety of fluorescent molecular probes, and has excellent clinical transformation prospects in the detection of tumors in vivo. However, the limited surface fluorescence makes the FMT reconstruction have some ill-posedness, and it is difficult to obtain the ideal reconstruction effect. In this paper, two different emission fluorescent probes and L 1-L 2 regularization are combined to improve the temporal and spatial resolution of FMT visual reconstruction by introducing the weighting factor α and a half-quadratic splitting alternating optimization (HQSAO) iterative algorithm. By introducing an auxiliary variable, the HQSAO method breaks the sparse FMT reconstruction task into two subproblems that can be solved in turn: simple reconstruction and image denoising. The weight factor α (α>1) can increase the weight of nonconvex terms to further promote the sparsity of the algorithm. Importantly, this paper combines two different dominant fluorescent probes to achieve high-quality reconstruction of dual light sources. The performance of the proposed reconstruction strategy was evaluated by digital mouse and nude mouse single/dual light source models. The simulation results show that the HQSAO iterative algorithm can achieve more excellent positioning accuracy and morphology distribution in a shorter time. In vivo experiments also further prove that the HQSAO algorithm has advantages in light source information preservation and artifact suppression. In particular, the introduction of two main emission fluorescent probes makes it easy to separate and reconstruct the dual light sources. When it comes to localization and three-dimensional morphology, the results of the reconstruction are much better than those using a fluorescent probe, which further facilitates the clinical transformation of FMT.

Joint Estimation of Metal Density and Attenuation Maps with Pencil Beam XFET

X-ray fluorescence emission tomography (XFET) is an emerging imaging modality that images the spatial distribution of metal without requiring biochemical modification or radioactivity. This work investigates the joint estimation of metal and attenuation maps with a pencil-beam XFET system that allows for direct metal measurement in the absence of attenuation. Using singular value decomposition on a simplified imaging model, we show that reconstructing metal and attenuation voxels far from the detector is an ill-conditioned problem. Using simulated data, we develop and compare two image reconstruction methods for joint estimation. The first method alternates between updating the attenuation map with a separable paraboloidal surrogates algorithm and updating the metal map with a closed-form solution. The second method performs simultaneous joint estimation with conjugate gradients based on a linearized imaging model. The alternating approach outperforms the linearized approach for iron and gold numerical phantom reconstructions. Reconstructing an (8 cm)3 object containing gold concentrations of 5 mg/cm3 and an unknown beam attenuation map using the alternating approach yields an accurate gold map (NRMSE = 0.19) and attenuation map (NRMSE = 0.14). This simulation demonstrates an accurate joint reconstruction of metal and attenuation maps, from emission data, without previous knowledge of any attenuation map.

Beyond DNA-targeting in Cancer Chemotherapy. Emerging Frontiers - A Review

Modern anti-cancer drugs target DNA specifically for rapid division of malignant cells. One downside of this approach is that they also target other rapidly dividing healthy cells, such as those involved in hair growth leading to serious toxic side effects and hair loss. Therefore, it would be better to develop novel agents that address cellular signaling mechanisms unique to cancerous cells, and new research is now focussing on such approaches. Although the classical chemotherapy area involving DNA as the set target continues to produce important findings, nevertheless, a distinctly discernible emerging trend is the divergence from the cisplatin operation model that uses the metal as the primary active center of the drug. Many successful anti-cancer drugs present are associated with elevated toxicity levels. Cancers also develop immunity against most therapies and the area of cancer research can, therefore, be seen as an area with a high unaddressed need. Hence, ongoing work into cancer pathogenesis is important to create accurate preclinical tests that can contribute to the development of innovative drugs to manage and treat cancer. Some of the emergent frontiers utilizing different approaches include nanoparticles delivery, use of quantum dots, metal complexes, tumor ablation, magnetic hypothermia and hyperthermia by use of Superparamagnetic Iron oxide Nanostructures, pathomics and radiomics, laser surgery and exosomes. This review summarizes these new approaches in good detail, giving critical views with necessary comparisons. It also delves into what they carry for the future, including their advantages and disadvantages.